The bodies of about thirty people were found in a village of the Kayah state, in the east of the country. Local insurgents accuse the Burmese army for executing civilians. The military junta says it was “terrorists”.
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Thirty-five burned corpses, including those of women and children, were found on the floor of fire burned in a village of the Kayah State, in the east of Burma. Photos documenting this massacre, which occurred on December 24, have just been broadcast by the entourage of a local army militia, in the fight against the military junta in power since the coup of February 1, 2021. These opponents accuse the Burmese army of being responsible for the killing. This confirms the incident, but affirms that the bodies were “terrorists”, no civilians.
Most of the victims of this carnage, whose UN was moved on Sunday, December 26, would be Karenni civilians, the main ethnic group of this state where several minorities coexist. In any case, it is argued by the combatants of the defense force of the Karenni Nationalities (KNDF), the organization of different local armed groups, to war for months against the regime of General Min Aung Hlaing, author of the Putsch. The statements of officials of the NGO Save the Children – including two members who were on the spot have disappeared in this same village since Christmas Eve -, as well as the testimony of a local peasant, give weight to the allegations of insurgents .
According to different sources of information that overlap, the killing would have occurred after fighting, for one hour, soldiers of the KNDF plan and fighters near a village located in the canton of HPruso, Christian majority zone – religion of most Karenni. The insurgents affirm that the military of the Tatmadaw (Burmese Armed Forces) then arrested people from the village of Moso, before binding their hands and tight them in half a dozen vehicles to which they then set fire, burning lively the supplicated. Four members of the border guards, pro-regime units at the ethnic component close to the rebel groups, had previously begged the soldiers to save civilians, without success: they were executed with a bullet in the head, support fighters from KNDF.
A survey requested by the UN
The Tatmadaw has another version: If we believe the information published in Burmese official media, the soldiers of the regular army would have killed a number of “armed terrorists” in the same village of Moso. They were in the half-dozen vehicles found fire, vans that had refused to stop at a checkpoint, forcing the military to open fire. The Karenni insurgents say, on the contrary, that none of their fighters are among the 35 killed, but that these are civilians.
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