Myanmar military kills tens of civilians, displaces thousands more at gateway between northern Shan State and Mandalay

Nearly 30 civilians were killed and some 6,000 people fled the northern Shan State town of Mongmit and the surrounding area this year due to a Myanmar military offensive involving airstrikes, sexual violence, and extrajudicial executions, a Shan civil society organisation said. In an update published on Monday, the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) reported that some 200 troops from the junta’s Infantry Division (ID) 99 came to Mongmit in three trucks from Mandalay on January 2. Their arrival followed an attempt by resistance forces including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, the People’s Defence Force, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) to seize the town, which is strategically located on the highway connecting the region to Mandalay. The junta retained control of Mongmit, however, and over the month that followed, SHRF documented the killing of 27 civilians by the military. Ten of these individuals died in airstrikes and artillery shellings, and 17 were executed by the occupying junta soldiers during a two week period starting in late January. “Most of the victims were male villagers who had stayed behind to look after their houses when other family members fled,” the report said. The murders outlined are gruesome, with several of the victims burned or mutilated by the junta’s forces. “The events that unfolded here show how brutal the military is to its own people,” a spokesperson for SHRF told Myanmar Now on Tuesday. “The junta troops dare to do anything they want and no one can stop them.” In Shwe Jali (Shwe Zar Li), just north of Mongmit, seven men were shot and killed by ID 99 soldiers on February 2, identified as individuals who had remained in the village to protect their property after others had sought refuge elsewhere. The bodies of two were later found burned. Similarly, five men and one woman were fatally shot by the troops in Mongmit town’s Kyi Taw Su quarter—the men’s hands were bound before they were killed, and the woman’s body burned, all discovered in mid-February by displaced persons who had returned to the area. At a bridge near the entrance to Mongmit, two teenage boys were found beheaded. During a one-week period in January, there were three incidents in which local women were gang raped, SHRF said. One of the attacks was perpetrated on January 19, when three junta soldiers entered the western Mongmit home of a 24-year-old woman in the middle of the night, threatening her family members during the act. The next day, more troops shot and killed a man who had returned from hiding to feed his cattle in the nearby village of Ohn Kyaw Mai. They then raped his wife before also shooting her dead. Five soldiers also raped a 32-year-old woman seeking shelter in the forest outside of Shwe Jali on January 26, causing serious injuries to the victim. The abuses against civilians coincided with disproportionate military force in response to clashes with resistance groups around Mongmit. Myanmar Now reported on January 19 that after allied forces led by the KIA seized several sites in the area, including a police station, the junta launched seven airstrikes in two days, also firing several rounds of artillery. The attacks damaged homes, Buddhist temples, and caused a previously unverified number of civilian casualties. SHRF’s Monday report confirmed that one 28-year-old man in Mongmit was killed during bombings by junta jets on January 18, and four children around 10 years old, as well as a woman in her 30s, were injured. In one of the airstrikes the next day, an elderly woman reportedly died of shock. Mongmit market was burned down in a fire caused by the January 19 airstrike, after which junta troops looted around 40 homes from which residents had fled, SHRF said. More than 350 homes were burned down by the military in and around Mongmit in January, due to both arson attacks and the reported use of incendiary bombs on nearby villages such as Shwe Jali. In total, SHRF said that 6,160 people left Mongmit due to the military violence earlier this year, with most—more than 4,000—seeking refuge in temples, neighbouring villages, and the forests surrounding the town. Another 1,500 went to Mandalay, with the remaining displaced persons staying in towns like Kyaukme and Pyin Oo Lwin. Map showing the direction of civilian displacement from Mongmit due to attacks by the junta’s forces in January (SHRF) SHRF’s spokesperson described the conditions in Mongmit at the time of reporting as “somewhat calm,” but said residents were “afraid of what might happen to them since the junta troops were still present.” A Mongmit local who fled earlier this year told Myanmar Now that he was “on alert” and considering returning with his family in the coming weeks, but had heard rumours that fighting could resume in March. “The soldiers have urged the residents to return to their homes,” he said, citing others who had ventured back and confirmed the presence of military units in the town. While resistance forces were able to overrun other nearby towns such as Mabein more than 40km north in January, and several other sites in northern Shan State late last year during Operation 1027—an offensive led by the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations, which includes the TNLA—they were not able to seize Mongmit. SHRF speculated that the junta deployed significant military resources to defend the township because it is situated near Mandalay Region, has deposits of gold, and is the site of the planned US$1.5 billion Shweli 3 hydropower dam project restarted by the regime last year. “Given the strategic importance of Mongmit—a wealthy mining hub and gateway from northern Shan State into Mandalay—it is unlikely the [junta] will scale back its forces there in the near future,” Monday’s report stated. For these reasons, SHRF’s spokesperson pointed out, there was “no hope for peace and stability at this moment” in the town.

Myanmar military kills tens of civilians, displaces thousands more at gateway between northern Shan State and Mandalay

Junta troops fighting to maintain their hold on the strategic town of Mongmit killed 27 people, committed rapes, and forced more than 6,000 people from their homes in one month, a Shan rights group says

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