Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) has strongly condemned the junta military’s massacre of 32 people in Lethtoketaw Village, Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday as another war crime and crime against humanity and vowed to seek justice for the victims.
Junta forces fired light arms and artillery shells into Lethtoketaw at around 5 a.m. on Thursday, killing six male villagers on the spot. Later that day, junta troops entered the village and executed 24 men and a woman, all of whom were shot in the head after having been removed from their hiding place inside a monastery, the NUG’s Human Rights Ministry said in a statement.
Junta forces then burned down the entire village, including civilian homes and two monasteries.
Over 20 people, including children and women, were detained and used as human shields by the troops until they reached Gwaybintaw Village, which is 3 km from Lethtoketaw.
After the raid, residents sent 17 injured people to a nearby cottage hospital and clinic. One died on the way, taking the total number of civilians from Lethtoketaw who were killed by junta troops on Thursday to 32, with the victims ranging in age from 15 to 60, the ministry stated.
“The junta’s military is systematically and widely committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and we strongly denounce such cruel attacks targeting civilians without any consideration,” the ministry said.
The NUG said the massacre in Lethtoketaw was committed by a combined force of 70 troops from Light Infantry Battalion 13, Field Engineer Battalion 909, Supply and Transport Battalion 929 and some Pyu Saw Htee pro-junta militia group members.
Junta ground and air forces have committed frequent massacres throughout the country over the past three years.
“We have collected and recorded detailed information of the junta’s war crimes and crimes against humanity and will continue through all possible legal mechanisms to bring [the junta to] justice,” it said, calling on the international community to help end the impunity that the junta has enjoyed so far despite repeatedly committing such crimes.
The regime has yet to comment on the massacre, which was one of numerous mass killings of civilians by junta forces reported around the country last week.
According to a report published in March by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica group compiling the number of civilian deaths at the regime’s hands, Myanmar junta forces have committed about 210 massacres, killing over 2,000 people, since the military coup in February 2021.
A lack of meaningful action by the UN and the rest of the international community has encouraged the military regime to commit arbitrary and extrajudicial killings of its own people, human rights and democracy activists said.
