The crowd of people that had assembled to attend makeshift funeral rites in a forest in central Myanmar’s Sagaing Region fled in panic as a burst of gunfire threw the memorial service into chaos.
Residents of Lethtoketaw Village in Myinmu Township were holding a funeral for 33 relatives who were slaughtered during a junta raid in the second week of May. Junta soldiers also incinerated the village, forcing residents to hide in the nearby forest.
As they were holding the Buddhist funeral rites for their slain relatives, they heard a burst of gunfire from the direction of a junta checkpoint in Gwepintaw Village on Monywa-Mandalay Road, which is 1.6 km from Lethtoketaw.
Ko Nyan, who is in charge of Lethtoketaw Village’s defense team, said: “People fled in panic as soon as they heard the gunshots. Even the monks fled.”
Having already witnessing the slaughter of their family members, the Lethtoketaw villagers were filled with both anger and fear.
Lethtoketaw is a large village with over 700 households close to Mandalay-Monywa Road and railroad. Thanks to its proximity to Myinmu and Chaung-U towns, the village has enjoyed prosperity in the past.
The majority of the residents are farmers and supporters of the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
One villager said: “The USDP always won the vote in our village. The National League for Democracy [NLD] has never won. But, there was no problem between villagers over political views, even after the coup. They didn’t view each other as enemies. No one snitched on anyone; but not anymore.”
The carnage inflicted on Lethtoketaw on May 11 by soldiers of the regime—which has carried out dozens of massacres and scores of arson attacks across the country since the coup—will haunt survivors for the rest of their lives.
Three groups of junta soldiers and junta-allied Pyu Saw Htee militia members totaling 100 troops raided the village from the west during the early hours of May 11, their guns blazing.
Ko Nyan, head of the village defense team, received a tip the previous night about the planned raid. Some families stayed despite his warning, eventually seeking shelter in two monasteries, where they became trapped.
Members of the village defense team were deployed in the south of the village to defend against the attack, but they were outnumbered, outgunned, and kept busy rescuing injured villagers.
Junta troops finally arrived at the monasteries after firing shots and torching houses along the way. The brutal massacre at the religious sites began.
One survivor said: “They finally arrived at the monastery where we were hiding. They found us and said something like: ‘Here! There are many of them! We’ve hit the mark!’ They told all the men to come out, and shot dead every one of them, including those in their 70s and 80s. They kicked them and struck them in the head with boots and rifle butts. They pushed them down and immediately shot them. They kicked the people to see if they were dead or not. If they were not yet dead, they shot again until they were dead.”
The survivor said he dropped to the ground when junta troops started shooting and pretended to be dead beneath the lifeless bodies of his relatives and neighbors.
“When they fired shots, I dropped down in the crowd. Some two others survived by doing the same. I was beneath the corpses. I could hear what they said. They said something like, “Guys, we have shot dead all the people in Lethtoketaw monastery. Take a look at this.” It seemed like they took pictures of us and sent them to other groups [of junta soldiers],” he said.
He survived with injuries to his knees and hands, but his brothers-in-law died. He said he dared not even breathe during the slaughter, which he estimated lasted for nearly an hour.
“My two brothers-in-law and the husband of my wife’s sister died. I am filled with sorrow. I can’t tolerate the brutal killing of Bamar people by Bamar people.”
A total of 33 villagers including two women were slaughtered, according to Lethtoketaw residents. The killings took place at a monastery west of the village, and a new monastery under construction east of the village.
Among the slain civilians were USDP members from Lethtoketaw, three stonemasons from Wun Pyae Village who were building the new monastery, and the husband of a heavily pregnant woman.
Despite her pleas for mercy, junta soldiers shot the woman’s husband dead in front of her eyes. “We were able to rescue the woman. She said her husband was shot point-blank in the head, right in front of her,” said Ko Nyan.
The woman gave birth on the same day that her husband was killed, and both the mother and the baby are in good health, said Ko Nyan.
An old woman was killed in a fire after her son was prevented from rescuing her from their burning house, said Ko Nyan, citing the accounts of witnesses. “The son bowed and begged junta soldiers to allow him to rescue his mother before killing him. He was told he could not rescue her. The women succumbed to her burns the next morning.”
The junta soldiers took around 20 villagers including women and children hostage and held them until they reached Gwepintaw Village.
The violence on May 11 was however not the junta’s first attack on the village. Residents believe regime forces have a grudge against the village because of mine attacks and ambushes on military convoys between Myinmu and Chaung-U on Monywa-Mandalay Road.
Junta troops raided Let Hoke Taw on May 6 last year, torching around 400 houses and killing one civilian. Junta soldiers threatened to kill villagers if there were ambushes in the future.
“They think our village was responsible for the ambushes. They have harbored grudges against us since then. They threatened to kill villagers if there were ambushes in the future—and they did,” said Ko Nyan.
A few days before the massacre, resistance fighters used remotely controlled mines to attack military vehicles on Myinmu-Chaung-U road carrying copper from mines in Monywa.
Junta forces suffered casualties in mine attacks on April 28, May 1 and May 2, Myinmu Township-based resistance group Black Eagle Defense Force-MMU reported on May 2.
Junta troops threatened to kill all the people in the village including women and children when they came again, said a Lethtoketaw resident. “They threatened that they would kill all [living things] including children, women and dogs next time, and wipe Lethtoketaw village out,” he said.
Residents did not know the identities of the junta soldiers responsible for the massacre but believe regime troops deployed in Gwepintaw, Nat Ye Kan and at the junction leading to Myaung town were involved.
According to the parallel National Unity Government, troops from Light Infantry Battalion 13, Battlefield Engineering Battalion 909 and Supply and Communications Battalion 929, as well as war veterans-turned-Pyu Saw Htee militia members were involved in the massacre.
Now homeless, Lethtoketaw villagers have been forced to take shelter at their relatives’ homes and in the forest, just as an unprecedented heat wave claims lives in Myanmar’s central plains.
Some 700 people including elderly persons and children are hiding in the forest, and they need drinking water, food and other relief supplies, said residents. The village is far from the Irrawaddy River; villagers used to rely on two wells, but they were destroyed by junta soldiers in their first raid in May last year. Since then, they had being sharing water from the only remaining well in the village monastery, but it was destroyed by junta soldiers during their massacre on May 11.
Ko Nyan said: “The villagers are having trouble. There are many elderly persons. It is hot in the forest, and there is no shelter or water. We want the international community to know how we are suffering.”
