Junta soldiers have rampaged through the crude oil fields in Magway Region’s Pauk and Myaing townships in recent weeks, killing six civilians and burning hundreds of hand-dug oil wells, local resistance groups have told Myanmar Now.
The troops, split into three columns of around 120 men each, have been demanding bribes of up to 500,000 kyat ($280) from owners of the small-scale drilling operations and setting the fires if they are unable to pay, the groups said.
On January 23, Pauk locals found the burned remains of three bodies in the oil drilling village of Kyauk Taung Khin. Then on Thursday two more bodies were found between the village of Kyet Su Aint and Tha Yet Kan, at the border of the two townships.
“Three of the civilians were burned on top of a haystack,” said Khun Chaint, the southern zone branch officer of the Myaing People’s Defence Force (PDF). “Two others were burned the other day in the oil fields between Pauk and Myaing.”
Most of the five bodies were unidentifiable, but several witnesses said one of the victims from the first group that was found was a 30-year-old local man named Kyaw Lin Oo, according to an officer from a guerilla group called the Anonymous Special Task Force.
“They shot him while he was passing by the petroleum wells on his motorcycle,” the officer told Myanmar Now. “He was burned on his motorcycle later.”
“We don’t know when exactly the bodies were burned but we found them on January 23,” he added. “Because there were a lot of people in the petroleum fields, we were unable to identify who they were.”
It is unclear how the victims died, but junta troops were accused of burning 11 people alive in Sagaing Region’s Done Taw village last month.
Another man, 48-year-old San Myaing, was shot twice and then detained by soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members wearing army uniforms on Wednesday in Kokkosu village, in the west of Pauk, the Anonymous Special Task Force officer said.
“He died while he was being held captive with a Htate Tone,” he added, referring to a method of restraint where the captive’s legs are entrapped in a wooden device. “His body was carried on a motorcycle to the cemetery.”
Oil fields in flames
Starting from January 10, junta forces launched assaults on seven locations across Myaing Township. Then from January 13, 360 soldiers in three columns began raiding the oil fields.
On January 20, soldiers demanded payments of between 120,000 to 500,000 kyat for each of the wells, which are marked by bamboo and tarpaulin shacks and triangular metal derricks.
Many were unable to pay and so the soldiers set fire to the wells, said the officer from the Anonymous Special Task Force. “Hundreds of petrol wells were destroyed; they kept torching them, one after the other.”
Other oil drilling villages raided by the soldiers included Latpan To, Thapyay Nyo, Nei Thet, Htan Pauk Kone, Tharakan, Ye Khar, Magyikone, Aing Ma and Lei Oh, he added.
Khun Chaint also suggested that hundreds of wells had been destroyed in the fires.
“Even if the owners of the wells paid the ransom to a junta group, another group would come and ask for more money and they would burn the wells if they failed to pay,” he said.
Locals are still on the run from the soldiers and the exact extent of the damage is still unknown.
The Myaing PDF raided a police station on Friday, seizing weapons there before burning it down.
On January 11, locals found three burned bodies about 10 miles north of Myaing’s urban center in the village of Latyetma.
From January 20, soldiers also destroyed houses in the north of Pauk, including three in Htan Taw Phu village and 10 in Nyaung Win village.
In nearby Thit Nyi Naung, the troops hacked away at the wooden support beams of 30 houses, making them structurally unstable.
Pyae Sone, a police officer taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement against the junta, told Myanmar Now that the entire village of Boet Mei was trashed and looted, along with another three houses in Wun Kyone village.
