Regime Kills 16 Villagers During Southern Burma Offensive
By Network Media Group
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
The Military Council is accused of murdering at least 16 villagers and destroying about 100 homes during an offensive in southern Burma in late May. The air force, navy, and ground troops were involved in the attacks on two villages in Taninthayi Region, a 45-year-old local man said.
Six people in Kanet Thiri, Kywae Min Kon, and Gon Nyin Seik were killed, including three children, by incendiary shells dropped by an aircraft. After the airstrikes, ground troops were sent into the villages in Thayet Chaung Township where they murdered ten people and disposed of their bodies by burning them in people’s homes, the man explained. All of them were fishermen, except one person, who was disabled. The soldiers reportedly looted houses in the villages of whatever valuables they could find.
Many villagers managed to flee the villages when they came under attack. After the soldiers left, they returned and discovered the grisly burnt remains of the victims. Everyone who was murdered by the ground soldiers was identified except three people.
Mon Soe (60), Lin Lin (40), Aung Naing (45), who is disabled, Lar Bong Gyi (50), and Aung Than Khaing (50), all from Kanet Thiri, were murdered by the soldiers. In Kywae Min Kon, the soldiers murdered Lar Shay and U Moe Pyar.
Fifteen-year-old Maung Aung Myat Noe was killed when a jet fighter bombed Gon Nyin Seik.
Volunteers, who are assisting the survivors, said the airstrikes also destroyed a high school in Kanet Thiri, hospital in the nearby village of Yange, and a clinic in Gon Nyin Seik, which is also situated near where the attacks happened.
