Myanmar military massacres more than 30 in Sagaing Region

Myanmar regime forces slaughtered more than 30 civilians on Saturday during a raid on the village of Let Htoke Taw in Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region some 40 miles west of Mandalay. Witnesses said the junta personnel—some of whom were reportedly in soldiers’ uniforms while others wore plainclothes—fatally shot 33 villagers and torched civilian homes, causing the death of an elderly woman who was unable to escape the fire. “They detained every single man they could find in the village and killed them,” a resident of Let Htoke Taw said. The same villager said that in addition to the elderly woman who had died in her burning house, another civilian woman was shot dead in the street. Shooting at a monastery At around 5am Sunday, the junta forces entered a monastery on the east side of the village where 50-60 villagers were taking shelter, according to witnesses at the scene. They were searching for members of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF), the armed wing of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government formed to oppose Myanmar’s military regime after the 2021 coup. A 37-year-old man who was hiding under a bed at the monastery witnessed the massacre first-hand. Victims of a massacre committed by the military, found on May 11 in Let Htoke Taw village, Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region (Photo: Supplied) He had been hiding in the monastery with his wife and their infant child when the junta forces arrived. He said that some villagers had chosen to stay at the monastery when they heard junta forces were approaching, while others had fled the village entirely. “Although I wanted to go hide in the forest, my wife didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go there with a baby,” the eyewitness said. Thinking he was at higher risk of being targeted by the junta as a man, he went to hide in the nearby forest while his wife and child sheltered at the monastery. When he visited soon afterwards to check on his family, the junta forces arrived.“I was hiding under the bed. But I could hear everything they were saying and asking,” he said. The leading officer asked why so many people had gathered at the monastery, the witness recalled, and asked to see the head of the village’s NUG-affiliated people’s administration team (PAT). A civilian woman told him people had fled to the monastery because they had heard gunfire. The military forces then called for all men to come out of the monastery and at least 29 men complied, the witness recalled. Along with one other man, he managed to hide undetected in the monastery while the rest of the men went out. The junta personnel then started to ask the men where the PDF were and where they kept their weapons, shooting those who refused to answer. “They threatened to kill everyone including the women if they didn’t reveal the whereabouts of PDF, saying they needed to know,” the man added. “As no one answered their questions, they kept shooting until most of them were dead.” Victims of a massacre committed by the military, found on May 11 in Let Htoke Taw village, Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region (Photo: Supplied) “I thought we would be killed too. We hid and kept repeating Buddhist mantras in a whisper,” he added. Surviving the massacre The eyewitness said he knew of four men who had survived the shooting: two men who remained inside the monastery and two who left the monastery building on the junta’s orders. “I heard one of them was still alive after being shot, but when they saw he was still moving, they shot him dead. They just slaughtered them as if they were animals,” the eyewitness told Myanmar Now. “When I came out from hiding, they had all been shot dead, except for two who survived.” The military personnel had also asked the women in the monastery compound about the whereabouts of the PDF, the witness said, but the women would not answer, believing that giving information would have no effect on the military’s decision whether to kill them. The junta forces threatened the surviving villagers, he added, telling them not to try rebelling against them with “inadequate” weaponry and saying they would burn the entire village and kill the women next time. While he continued to hide with the other man, he said, the junta forces took his wife and child from the monastery compound to watch as they torched the village’s houses, but did not otherwise harm them. “They took the women in two groups to watch them set fire to houses in the village, threatening that it would be worse if they continued to support the PDF,” the man added. As they burned the houses, the junta forces reportedly told the women that it was revenge for recent PDF attacks, one of which had injured three soldiers including a 67-year-old veteran captain brought back into service under the military regime’s new conscription and reserve forces policy. Another civilian man in his 40s said he was one of the few male survivors of the massacre despite being among the men the military personnel had found at the monastery and forced out of hiding. “The doors of the monastery were shut right after we got in. We could hear gunshots, but didn’t know where they were coming from,” he said. Victims of a massacre committed by the military, found on May 11 in Let Htoke Taw village, Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region (Photo: Supplied) After a moment, he said, the Myanmar military forces broke in and ordered the men to come out. “The whole room was full of noise, with women crying out for their husbands and relatives,” he recalled, and he went out and joined a group of men who appeared to be in their 40s, 70s, or 80s sitting in front of the monastery. “They didn’t make any exceptions, even for an elderly paralyzed man,” he added. As they started to shoot, he said, “I crouched low with my face to the ground. Everyone started to crouch down on top of each other and I was at the bottom.” “I don’t even know how it happened,” he said, adding that all he could hear was the constant sound of gunshots all around him. “I thought I was already dead.” After the gunshots went silent, he was found by villagers who had come to inspect the aftermath of the shootings and search for survivors. “I was covered in blood, but someone noticed I was not dead,” he said. “Next thing I knew, I was already on the road walking away, not sure how I got there. I feel lucky that I survived, but I’m grieving for those who were killed.” Retaliation Ko Nyan, a member of the PDF as well as the Let Htoke Taw PAT, confirmed that the junta’s massacre was meant as retaliation for attacks by the armed resistance. “They wanted revenge because we had attacked their convoy on the Chaung-U road before, injuring three of them,” Ko Nyan said. “They were also angry after we attacked them again yesterday and injured two people, so they did this to retaliate.” Knowing what could happen to the civilians, he said they evacuated the village of most of its residents, but some had chosen to stay and shelter in the monastery. He added that those who had fled the village escaped the violence and survived. He added that, in addition to torching homes, the junta forces had put a burning engine down a well in the village that serves as an important source of water for its inhabitants. “Now that the well is contaminated,” he said, “even the villagers who survived will have trouble getting enough drinking water.” Last year, junta forces torched around 400 households in Let Htoke Taw village, he said. According to Ko Nyan, Let Htoke Taw had once comprised around 800 households, of which the military had torched around 600. On the Saturday raid, the military burned down even the makeshift houses put up as hasty replacements for the houses they had previously destroyed. “The people who were killed were civilians,” Ko Nyan said. Victims of a massacre committed by the military, found on May 11 in Let Htoke Taw village, Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region (Photo: Supplied) Another member of PDF confirmed the victims had not been affiliated with the armed resistance. “None of them were PDF, they were just displaced people taking shelter at the monastery,” he told Myanmar Now. He said the number of houses burned by the junta forces during the raid was unknown. Although some of the junta forces who committed the massacre were not in uniform, villagers said the Myanmar army’s Light Infantry Division (LID) 13 and Engineering Division 909 are both stationed in Myinmu, while the No. 929 reserve support and communication unit and pro-junta militias are based in villages in the neighbouring Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region. After the junta forces left, the man who had been hiding in the monastery said they came out of hiding and went to check the extent of damage in the village. They met the mourning families of five other men whom the junta had killed at another monastery on the west side of the village, they said. “The men of so many families have been killed,” the eyewitness said. “I am overwhelmed with grief and anger.”

Myanmar military massacres more than 30 in Sagaing Region

In retaliation for attacks by the armed resistance, junta personnel rounded up and killed more than 30 civilian men sheltering in monasteries in a village in Myinmu Township before burning down houses and threatening the surviving villagers with further violence

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