Last week, reports emerged of a massacre carried out by Burma’s military government in Let Htoke Taw village, resulting in the deaths of over 30 civilians. The bloodshed is part of a series of mass killings in the ongoing civil war in Burma, sparked by the military’s seizure of power in February 2021. The violent repression of nationwide protests led to widespread armed resistance, intensifying into a full-fledged civil war.
In addition to the massacre in Let Htoke Taw village, two other mass killings occurred in recent days in central Burma. One involved a resistance group and civilians being killed in an airstrike at a monastery in Magway region, while the other resulted in the deaths of 32 people in fighting in Mandalay region. The military government has denied accusations of attacks on civilians and has blamed resistance forces for the violence.
According to a local administrator and a survivor of the massacre in Let Htoke Taw village, soldiers and armed men entered the village in search of resistance fighters. The residents attempted to flee when the soldiers began firing their weapons, seeking sanctuary at the local Buddhist monastery. However, they were then held captive by the soldiers, interrogated, and ultimately shot in an act of mass killing.
The survivor described how he played dead after being shot in the left armpit, remaining motionless until the soldiers left the monastery compound. The soldiers burned the bodies of the dead and took several villagers, including the survivor’s wife and children, as hostages. The hostages were later released outside the village. The soldiers also burned down hundreds of homes in the village and destroyed the water pumps, a tactic they have been accused of using repeatedly in other areas.
Sagaing region, where Let Htoke Taw village is located, has been a stronghold of armed resistance to the military. The army has responded with major offensives, using ground troops, artillery, and airstrikes to drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. The village had previously been targeted by soldiers fighting the resistance, with hundreds of houses being set on fire in a similar incident last year.
The National Unity Government, the main opposition group in Burma, operates as a shadow government and claims greater legitimacy than the ruling military. As the violence continues to escalate in the country’s brutal civil war, reports of massacres and other atrocities committed by the military government against civilians underscore the ongoing human rights crisis in Burma.
