At least seven people died in alleged Army attacks against villages in Sagaing, in northern Myanmar (formerly Burma), setting fire to and executing civilians whom they considered linked to rebel groups, the local press reported on Sunday.
According to the online newspaper Irrawaddy, which specializes in coverage of Southeast Asia, Myanmar soldiers reportedly burned down at least five villages, including Moat Soe Choung, Taw Taw and Kyee Kan, holding the villagers and executing seven people with the they believed to be associated. armed rebel groups.
“We are still working to count the number of houses burned. Some people are still detained, [mas] we can see that at least six people died in Kyee Kan,” in addition to another death in another village, a spokesman for the Wetlet Information Network was quoted as saying by the Irrawaddy.
On Friday alone, 56 houses were destroyed in Saing Naing Gyi village and another nine were set on fire in Saing Naing Lay, resulting in the destruction of significant rice stocks in both villages.
Also according to the Irrawaddy, at least five soldiers were killed in clashes with guerrillas from the Nagar Min People’s Defense Forces, based in Nagar, in Wetlet.
In 2021, after arresting the then Myanmar head of government, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar military declared a state of emergency and took control of the country.
Since then, Myanmar has faced a civil war that, in a year, has resulted in the death of more than 2,500 people in junta operations and the arrest of another 17,500 detainees, according to the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners of the country.
Landmines and unexploded ordnance injured or killed more than one person per day in Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 2022, according to the United Nations, an increase of almost 40% since 2021.
The military coup that toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 sparked renewed clashes with rebel ethnic groups and the formation of dozens of popular defense forces in areas that had not previously suffered from decades of conflict in Myanmar.
The Southeast Asian country is not a signatory to the United Nations convention banning the use, stockpiling or development of antipersonnel mines.
The Burmese army has been repeatedly accused of atrocities and war crimes during decades of internal conflict, and last year Amnesty International said troops were laying land mines on a “massive scale”, including near churches and on roads leading to fields. of rice.
Source: TSF
