Dozens killed following assaults on two villages in Sagaing’s Myinmu Township

Warning: This report contains disturbing images

At least 24 people were killed in the wake of two separate raids carried out by regime forces in Sagaing Region’s Myinmu Township last week, according to local residents and resistance sources.

The first raid took place last Monday, when three military helicopters attacked Pa Dat Taing, a village located some 28km northwest of the town of Myinmu, during a graduation ceremony for members of a local resistance group.

The leader of the group said that when its members returned on Thursday, they discovered the charred and dismembered remains of at least 20 villagers scattered in a nearby field.

“We used clothing found near the body parts to identify the victims. So far, we have been able to identify 10,” he said.

“I think they chopped up the bodies so that we wouldn’t be able to tell who they were,” said a resident of the village who asked to remain anonymous.

“We had to pick up the parts piece by piece so we could cremate them properly,” he added.

With the exception of one man in his 30s, all of the victims who have been identified so far were at least 40 years old; one was in his 60s. 

Another man who could not be identified is believed to have been in his 20s. There was also at least one woman among the dead villagers, local sources told Myanmar Now.

Meanwhile, another raid carried out on Thursday in a village east of Myinmu left at least four civilians dead, according to sources close to the victims.

Three brothers from the village of Nyaung Pin Wun and a fourth man who could not be identified were found dead Thursday night after being arrested by regime soldiers near the village of Ma Gyi Kan earlier in the day.

The three brothers—Kyaw Thu Aung, 32, Kyaw Min Tun, 28, and Kyaw Min Naing, 18—were on their way to Ma Gyi Kan to buy a motorcycle when they ran into some soldiers who had just carried out a raid on a People’s Defence Force (PDF) base in the village.

“When their family heard that there were soldiers in Ma Gyi Kan, they tried to call the brothers, but they couldn’t get through,” a friend of the family told Myanmar Now.

“Even then, their family thought that they were just hiding in a safe place somewhere,” the friend added.

According to a resident of Nyaung Pin Wun who saw the bodies after they were sent back to the village on Friday morning, Kyaw Thu Aung and Kyaw Min Tun both had their throats slit, and Kyaw Min Naing had been shot in the head.

A member of the Myinmu PDF told Myanmar Now that the soldiers had raided the base in Ma Gyi Kan disguised as telecoms workers. Several civilians died in the raid, he said.

“First they were taken hostage, and then they were killed,” said the Myinmu PDF fighter, who called himself Yakkha.

He also claimed that the Myinmu PDF had used explosives to attack a convoy of around 60 vehicles coming from Monywa, where the military’s Northwestern Regional Command is based.

Sources in Pa Dat Taing said that the five helicopters that been used to attack the village earlier in the week had also come from Monywa.

Thousands of villagers have been displaced by recent fighting throughout the township, sources said.