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Myanmar junta troops said to have held preschoolers as ‘human shields’ after raid

February 28, 2022/in News

A military spokesman said children were detained for their protection during clashes with opposition forces. Anti-junta paramilitaries on Monday freed some 100 preschool children and other residents they say Myanmar’s military had detained as “human shields” against a counterattack in a village in embattled Sagaing region’s Yinmabin township. Residents of Yinmabin’s Chin Pone village told […]

Junta soldiers burn hundreds of homes and murder civilians during rampages in upper Myanmar

February 28, 2022/in News

One of those killed was found with severe injuries on his body, suggesting he had been tortured, a local resident said Junta soldiers killed civilians, burned hundreds of homes, and destroyed food stocks during attacks on villages in Sagaing Region last week, locals said. Troops entered Kan Lay Kone village in Taze Township on February […]

Myanmar junta troops said to have held preschoolers as ‘human shields’ after raid

February 28, 2022/in News

Junta soldiers burn hundreds of homes and murder civilians during rampages in upper Myanmar

February 28, 2022/in News

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Myanmar junta troops said to have held preschoolers as ‘human shields’ after raid

February 28, 2022/in News

A military spokesman said children were detained for their protection during clashes with opposition forces.

Anti-junta paramilitaries on Monday freed some 100 preschool children and other residents they say Myanmar’s military had detained as “human shields” against a counterattack in a village in embattled Sagaing region’s Yinmabin township.

Residents of Yinmabin’s Chin Pone village told RFA’s Myanmar Service that they were attending a funeral service on Saturday when two military helicopters attacked a training camp for the prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group located just west of the settlement.

According to one witness, around 40 troops descended from two additional helicopters and arrested anyone who was unable to flee the area, including some 100 preschoolers and other villagers.

After holding the village for two days, troops left Chin Pone at around 10 a.m. on Monday — but not before torching four homes and several motorbikes.

A PDF fighter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that when members of his group entered Chin Pone to free the detainees from the village school on Monday, they discovered more than a dozen bodies in the building.

“One of my brothers found them in the school when he went in to retrieve the children,” he said.

“He said there were four bodies in one place, two more in another place and a seventh in a third place. Additionally, there were six bodies, including a young woman’s, at the entrance of the preschool on the south side of the monastery. So, a total of 13 bodies were found. Two of them were from our village.”

The children and nine teachers and villagers were taken to a safe place by residents after the army left the area, the PDF fighter said.

Residents told RFA that while troops are no longer in the village, they were unable to retrieve the bodies because of the threat of booby-traps.

They said the military vacated Chin Pone at approximately the same time that helicopters carried out another attack on the nearby Yinmabin villages of Thabyay Aye, Kyauk Pyut and Wah Sein Taung.

“The billowing smoke can be seen from here and there is still a helicopter in the area,” said one resident, who was observing Chin Pone from a village about one mile away. “All of our stashed valuables were said to be taken away and the houses where [troops] found weapons were destroyed.”

Sources told RFA that more than 5,000 residents from some 10 surrounding villages fled their homes during the Saturday raid on Chin Pone.

‘Training terrorists’

A pro-junta media outlet reported that fighting broke out Chin Pone on Saturday after the military carried out checks on a local monastery and school following a tip that PDF units were hiding there. It said that troops killed six male and female PDF members in a firefight and seized weapons, ammunition and dozens of vehicles.

Junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun confirmed the incident, telling RFA that people in the village had been “training PDF terrorists.”

“During the raid, the security forces seized some of them along with eight homemade firearms, four homemade mortars, some mortar shells and homemade mines, he said. “The detainees are now being questioned in accordance with the law. I don’t know the numbers.

“They were holding training sessions in schools and monasteries. Some of them were killed in the clash and some of our troops were injured. The preschool children were kept in the school because the terrorists were fleeing in all directions.”

However, Ko Khant, a member of the North Yamar PDF, said the army’s detention of the children and other residents of Chin Pone village amounted to using civilians as “human shields.”

“The main reason that they were using the children as human shields is because they were afraid of being attacked,” he said.

Ko Khant said he believes that the troops detained people in the village with the intention of using them as protection because “not all of the children were trapped in the confusion” of the initial raid.

“The soldiers took them as hostages because they did not have enough strength to defend themselves,” he said. “If they became encircled and attacked by area paramilitaries, they would have suffered heavy casualties.”

Yinmabin township has been a stronghold of armed resistance to junta rule since the military seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected National League for Democracy party in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. In the nearly 13 months since, junta forces have arrested nearly 9,400 civilians and killed 1,585 – mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests.

Authorities shut down internet access in Yinmabin six months ago in a bid to disrupt PDF communications.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

RFA News

Junta soldiers burn hundreds of homes and murder civilians during rampages in upper Myanmar

February 28, 2022/in News

One of those killed was found with severe injuries on his body, suggesting he had been tortured, a local resident said

Junta soldiers killed civilians, burned hundreds of homes, and destroyed food stocks during attacks on villages in Sagaing Region last week, locals said.

Troops entered Kan Lay Kone village in Taze Township on February 21 and abducted 43-year-old Soe Moe, who they then took to another village five miles away called Thapyay Inn, according to the locals.

He was found dead on Thursday with his hands tied behind his back near a stream in Thapyay Inn. “We think he was tortured for three whole days,” said one local man. “There were a great number of injuries on the body.”

It was unclear why he was targeted, the man added. “He was on his way to check on his relatives when he ran into the junta column,” he said.

Elsewhere in Taze, Nay Win Htun, 40, was shot dead in his village of southern Chaung Sone on Friday. Locals said the soldiers threw the man’s body into his house, which they then set fire to.

Another junta column entered Taze from Kanbalu Township and raided the villages of Kan Phyu, Wat Toe and Thar Khaung Gyi on February 24, according to Taze locals.

“They’ve been terrorising those villages for three days,” said one resident. “They also torched houses that were not destroyed by artillery shells. And they killed and ate the cows in the village. They’re just doing whatever they want.”

Image_0.Png

The body of Soe Moe who was abducted by junta soldiers in Kan Lay Kone village was found at a roadside on February 24 (Supplied)

In Shwebo Township on Friday, 50 soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militiamen burned around 400 homes in the village of Hna Ma Sar Yit. Locals later found the bodies of three residents and said three others, who were all elderly, had gone missing.

“They started firing shots at around 6am,” said one local man, adding that the attackers used both heavy and light weapons.

Yin San Aye, 33, and U Thein, 55, were later found dead with bullet wounds, while 77-year-old Khin Than died in a fire in her home, he added.

Tons of rice were also destroyed in the fires. This is the fourth time the village of some 600 houses had been attacked by the junta’s forces.

“I don’t even have the words to describe what we’re feeling right now. I would understand if we were armed and posed a threat to them. We weren’t armed in any way. The villagers were fleeing but they just kept on firing. It’s just too cruel,” the local man said.

The Pyu Saw Htee members who joined the soldiers came from Thee Lone, Pan Yan and Myin See villages, he added.

A local woman told Myanmar Now her house was burned after she fled the village with her eldery parents.

“Once all of us had fled, they started torching the houses in the southern part of the village until they reached the middle. And then my house was torched. We could also hear them yelling that they would kill anyone they saw,” she said.

Residents say many in the village have taken part in anti-coup protests.

Local news reports said thousands have been displaced by military raids on the Shwebo villages of Ywar Soe, Pauk Chaing and Seikkhun.

Soldiers burned another 40 houses with shelling in Shwebo’s Ngarpi Oe village on Thursday and killed a 25-year-old man, villagers and a local resistance force leader there said.

The four victims were cremated in Seikkhun on July 18 (Supplied)

The men were on night watch duty in their village of Seikkhun when the troops arrived

The attack came as retaliation after a Pyu Saw Htee leader named Myint Than was killed along with another man named La Yaung. Junta forces in the nearby village of Gway Pin Kone opened at Ngarpi Oe using artillery.

“We didn’t have enough time to do anything at all,” said the resistance force leader. “The battle was totally unexpected. They started to fire artillery shells right after the Pyu Saw Htee leader got killed.”

“We don’t have enough equipment or weapons to fight back. They continuously used heavy artillery shells. It was really overkill, considering the civilians were unarmed,” he added.

The 25-year-old man was shot dead while fleeing the attack on his motorcycle at around 9pm, he added. The fires raged until Friday morning.

“They wouldn’t have needed to use this much force even if it had been an actual battle. There were only 20 seconds between each heavy artillery shell. We couldn’t do anything but retreat,” the resistance fighter added.

The village sits along the Shwebo-Kyaukmyaung road near the entrance to the UNESCO world heritage site of Hanlin, which contains archeological ruins from the Pyu era.

“The place where the shells fell is only 15,000 feet away from the Han Lin city gate. The shell essentially fell in preserved territory,” said a 60-year-old villager named Lin.

Another man, 40, said a two-storey house, a barn and 410 litres of rice grain were also destroyed by the shells, while six cows were killed.

Over 5,000 people have fled Ngarpi Oe and the nearby villages of Gyoegyar, Kan Gyi Taw, Ywar Thit Kone and Thea Kyun because of the attacks, according to locals.

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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