A two-year-old girl was seriously wounded after she was shot in the neck while her family was fleeing a raid on their village in Sagaing Region’s Khin-U Township on Wednesday.
Residents of Myin Daung, the village that was attacked, told Myanmar Now that the girl, Thu Thu Wai, is currently receiving treatment for her injuries in Mandalay.
“She was in her father’s arms as they tried to get away from the military’s gunshots. A bullet went right through her neck, but didn’t hit her windpipe,” said a villager who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Myin Daung is a large village of around 400 households, located about 18km west of the town of Khin-U and on the opposite side of the Muu River from the town of Ye-U.
According to Lin Yaung, the leader of a local defence force called the Khin-U Special Force Organisation (KSO), the village is a frequent target of raids by members of the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia based in the nearby village of Ywar Thit Kone.
“They always come in groups of six on three motorcycles, and we usually try to ambush them as they leave,” he said, noting that there was a clash involving junta forces just outside of Myin Daung on Wednesday.
There are regime soldiers occupying four villages in Khin-U Township, in addition to the troops stationed in the town of Khin-U, according to a spokesperson for the Khin-U People’s Defence Force (PDF).
“Each village has a squadron of soldiers, including a captain, as well as several Pyu Saw Htee members,” the Khin-U PDF spokesperson said, adding that attacks are also launched from Ye-U.
Khin-U has been one of the major strongholds of armed resistance to Myanmar’s military junta since it seized power in a coup in February of last year.
More than 100 clashes have been reported in the township over the past year, claiming the lives of at least 142 resistance fighters, according to KSO figures.
The military has also destroyed more than 1,400 houses in Khin-U as part of its effort to crush local resistance to its rule, the group claimed.
Wednesday’s incident comes amid growing concern over the impact of post-coup violence on Myanmar’s children.
In a report released on June 14, Tom Andrews, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said that the country’s military has killed more than 140 children since the coup and detained at least 1,400 more.
In a statement, Andrews said that he has also received reports of children being tortured in regime custody.
Children “were beaten, stabbed, burned with cigarettes, and subjected to mock executions, and … had their fingernails and teeth pulled out during lengthy interrogation sessions,” he said.
Describing such acts as crimes against humanity and war crimes, he called for concerted international action to hold those responsible to account.
“Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and other architects of the violence in Myanmar must be held accountable for their crimes against children,” he said.
