A column of junta troops is decapitating and disemboweling civilians in the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region again.
Heads and limbs are being displayed on fence posts after the crimes occur, resistance groups and residents of the township said.
Photographs circulating online confirm that another wave of revenge atrocities has occurred.
This time junta troops are targeting villages in the region’s Budalin Township.
Resistance groups and residents say that at least 25 civilians in the township have been slaughtered over the past 10 days. They say that the junta’s military has also launched airstrikes and arson attacks on seven villages in the township.
Junta forces began raiding villages along the Monywa-Budalin Road in the first week of this month, following a resistance attack that defeated a regime column near Budalin town on September 30.
They torched Kyauk Oh Myauk village on October 9 and seized about 20 residents for use as human shields, according to the Budalin People’s Defense Force (PDF).
Junta troops killed six civilians in Budalin Town and 19 more in several villages during the 10-day period, according to the PDF and other resistance groups. Seven civilians in Myauk Kyi village and another six civilians in Sipar village were killed by junta troops. Two civilians in Thayaw Taw village and two more in Saing Byin Lay village were also killed by junta troops during the period. One civilian in Oak Kyin and another in Sal Wa village were also slain, according to the resistance groups.
The villages are located to the north and west of Budalin Town.
Resistance groups said the photos circulating online were taken by residents of Sipar village, where junta troops unleashed a shocking level of barbarism on civilians when they arrived on October 17.
Joe Pauk, a leader of the Budalin PDF, described the killing of civilians as “cruel” and “inhumane”, saying residents of the village posed no threat to junta troops. “They did not even have needles in their hands,” he said, adding: “The junta will pay for what they have done to these innocent people.”
The village is in northern Budalin Township. It had more than 500 homes before junta troops incinerated at least 300 of them after taking control of the village for two days last week. They left on the evening of October 18. Afterward, residents returned to find six corpses. Some had been beheaded and others disemboweled, residents and resistance troops said.
A member of Budalin PDF said the bodies were so disfigured that it was not possible to tell if those killed had been residents of the village. Junta troops brought dozens of detainees from other villages with them when they arrived in Sipar and many residents of the village had fed in several directions before the column arrived, the PDF member said. Those who had returned were still trying to determine who remained missing, the PDF member said.
While they were based in Sipar village, junta troops also raided Sal Wa and Kywel Thay Chaung villages on October 18, torching homes in the villages that evening.
On October 19, an Mi-35 helicopter bombed and fired on Nyaung Kan village even though there were no clashes in or around the village. Nyaung Kan is a large village with about 800 homes. The airstrike forced thousands of villagers to flee.
After leaving Sipar village, junta troops raided Saing Byin Lay village on the evening of October 20, torching homes and seizing 10 residents
‘I don’t know whether they are dead or alive,” said one resident who explained that the junta troops had brought at least 20-30 men with them when they raided Saing Byin Lay village. “Now they are moving on to other village,” he said.
In Ai Paung Chaung village, south of Saing Byin Lay, two dead bodies of residents from Saing Byin Lay, showing signs of torture were found on October 19 and 21. At least a dozen villagers are still missing, residents said.
According to photos taken by residents of Sipar village that are circulating online, the limbs of some victims were severed from their bodies. Junta troops placed the heads, legs, and arms of victims on fences in Sipar village. Their faces had been cut, indicating that they had been brutally tortured before they were killed.
Ko Thitsar, a leader of Depayin PDF, who is closely monitoring the movement of the junta troops in the area, said that those killed by junta troops in Budalin Township were innocent civilians who were not members of PDFs or administrative bodies set up by the resistance.
“They are taking revenge for losing a battle with us late last month, but those they are killing are civilians. This is very cowardly,” he said.
A six-year-old child was among the seven killed in Myauk Kyi village on October 11 and 12, Ko Thitsar said, vowing to take revenge for the killing of civilians.
This is not the first time that junta troops have unleashed extreme barbarity on civilians in Sagaing Region since the coup.
From February 23 to March 5 last year, a special task force with about 100 junta troops went on a rampage through Ayadaw, Myinmu and Sagaing townships in the region, killing and beheading 20 resistance members and massacring 16 civilian detainees, including three women who were raped before being killed.
A conflict analyst in Myanmar said members of the junta’s military have been taught to believe that inflicting cruelty instills fear in their enemies and the population at large, and that this discourages support for the resistance.
“The message they intend to convey is clear: fear,” he said.
The tactic is failing, however.
“This tactic is ineffective. It only fuels hatred among the people,” he explained.
He said that global inaction over war crimes in Myanmar was emboldening the junta’s military: “The junta’s increasing boldness in committing such atrocities is a result of the failure of the UN and the global community to take appropriate action.”
