Two activists of the international Save the Children charity are missing in Myanmar after dozens of people were shot dead on Friday.
According to a witness and other reports, Myanmar government soldiers surrounded the villagers, some believed to be women and children, and fatally shot more than 30 people and burnt the bodies.
purported photos after Christmas The Eve massacre in the eastern Mo So village spread across the country on social media, sparking outrage against the military that took power in a coup in February.
Mo So village is just outside Hpruso township in Kaya state where refugees were taking refuge from an army attack.
The accounts could not be independently verified. Photos showed charred bodies of more than 30 people in three charred vehicles.
Myanmar has been in chaos since a coup in February, according to a local watchdog group, with more than 1,300 people killed in crackdowns by security forces.
The ‘People’s Defense Forces’ (PDF) have emerged to fight the junta across the country, dragging the military into a bloody stalemate of conflicts and retaliation.
Image: Vehicles burned in Hpruso township in Myanmar’s Kayah state where at least 30 people – believed to be women and children – were shot dead by government troops on Friday. Two Save the Children activists have since gone missing
A villager who went to the scene told The Associated Press that the victims had fled fighting on Friday between armed resistance groups and Myanmar’s military near the village of Koi Ngan, next to Mo So.
They were killed after being arrested by soldiers on their way to refugee camps in the western part of the settlement, he said.
Save the Children said two of its employees who were on their way home for a holiday after doing humanitarian response work in a nearby community were “trapped in the incident and missing.”
“We have confirmed that his personal vehicle was attacked and burnt,” the group said in a statement. ‘The army allegedly forced people out of their cars, arrested some, killed others and burnt their bodies.’
“We are horrified by the violence against innocent civilians and our employees, who are dedicated humanitarians who are helping millions of children in Myanmar,” said Save the Children’s chief executive Inger Eshing.
A villager told Reuters on Saturday he had seen 32 bodies, while Save the Children said at least 38 people had died.
The US embassy in Myanmar said on Sunday it was shocked by the barbaric attack in Kaya province that killed at least 35 civilians, including women and children.
“We will continue to push for accountability for the perpetrators of the ongoing campaign of violence against the Burmese people,” the statement said.
Save the Children said it was suspending operations in the region.
Image: Smoke and flames from vehicles in Hpruso Township, Kaya State, Myanmar in this photo released by the Kareni Nationality Defense Force on December 24, 2021
A witness and other reports said on Saturday that Myanmar government soldiers surrounded villagers, some believed to be women and children, fatally shot more than 30 and set the bodies on fire.
Mo So village, where the massacre is said to have taken place, is outside Hpruso township in Kaya State where refugees were taking refuge from an army attack.
The London-based charity said it has suspended operations in Kaya and parts of neighboring Karen state and the Magway area.
A report in the official Myanmar Allin daily on Saturday said fighting broke out near Mo So on Friday.
It said members of ethnic guerrilla forces known as the Kareni National Progressive Party and those opposing the army attacked security forces after refusing to stop in “suspicious” vehicles.
The newspaper reports that they included freshmen who were going to attend training to fight the military, and that seven vehicles they were traveling in were destroyed in the fire. It did not provide further details about the killings.
A member of a local PDF group said its fighters had found the vehicles on Saturday morning, after hearing that the military had intercepted several vehicles in Hpruso after a clash with its fighters on Friday.
“This morning when we went to check-in the area, we found burnt bodies in two trucks. We found 27 bodies,’ he told the AFP agency on condition of anonymity.
Another witness, on condition of anonymity, said, “We found 27 skulls.
‘But there were other bodies on the truck, which were burnt to pieces, so we could not count them.’
The Myanmar Witness Monitor said it confirmed local media reports and witnesses from local fighters that ’35 people, including children and women, were burned and killed by the military in Hapruso township on 24 December’.
Satellite data also showed that the fire broke out at Hpruso around 1:00 p.m. (0630 GMT) on Friday.
The AFP news agency was unable to confirm the reports, but AFP Digital Verification reporters said photos showing the incident had not appeared online before Friday evening.
The Myanmar military denied the claims.
People flee due to a fight between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU) to obtain food at a temporary housing for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Karen State, along the Thai-Myanmar border on December 25, 2021
People fleeing a fight between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU) board a boat across a river in Karen State, on the Thai-Myanmar border on December 25, 2021
Witnesses who spoke to the AP said the remains had been burned beyond recognition, and clothing of children and women was found along with medical supplies and food.
Fearing for his safety, the witness said on condition of anonymity, “The bodies were tied with ropes before setting the fire.”
He did not see the moment they were killed, but said he believed some of them were Mo So villagers who were allegedly arrested by soldiers on Friday.
He denied that those captured were members of locally organized militia groups.
Myanmar’s independent media reported on Friday that 10 Mo So villagers, including children, were arrested by the military and four members of the local paramilitary border guard who had gone to negotiate their release were allegedly tied up and beheaded by the military. shot in.
Eyewitnesses said that when army personnel approached Mo So, villagers and anti-government militia groups abandoned the bodies while the bodies were being prepared for cremation. The fighting was still intense near the village.
‘It is a heinous crime and the worst incident during Christmas. We strongly condemn that genocide as a crime against humanity,’ said Banar Khun Aung, director of the Kareni Human Rights Group.
Earlier this month, government soldiers were also accused of encircling villagers, some believed to be children, by tying them up and slaughtering them. An opposition leader, Dr Sasa, who uses only one name, said civilians were burnt alive.
People fleeing a fight between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU) board a boat in Karen State, on the Thai-Myanmar border on December 25, 2021
A video from the aftermath of the December 7 attack – apparently a retaliation for an attack on a military convoy – showed the charred bodies of 11 people lying in a circle among the remains of a hut.
Meanwhile, fighting resumed on Saturday in the neighboring state bordering Thailand, where thousands of people have fled for shelter.
Local officials said Myanmar’s military launched airstrikes and heavy artillery on Friday on Ley Kaw Kaw, a small town controlled by ethnic Karen guerrillas.
The military action prompted several Western governments, including the US embassy, to issue a joint statement condemning the “serious human rights violations committed by the military regime across the country”.
“We call on the regime to immediately cease indiscriminate attacks in the state of Karen and throughout the country, and to ensure the safety of all citizens in accordance with international law,” the joint statement said.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, who was sentenced to four years in house arrest and faces several other criminal charges.
At least 1,375 people have been killed and more than 8,000 jailed in crackdowns on protests and armed protests since the coup, according to a figure from the Association for the Aid of Political Prisoners.
The military government disputes those numbers, saying that soldiers have also died in the conflict.
In October, Save the Children said its office in the western city of Thantlang was destroyed in junta shelling, which also damaged dozens of homes after clashes with a local anti-junta group.
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