Myanmar junta troops have torched hundreds of buildings during a three-day raid in the country’s north, local media and residents said, as the military struggles to crush resistance to its rule.
The Sagaing region has seen fierce fighting and bloody reprisals since a coup early last year, with local “People’s Defense Force” (PDF) members clashing regularly with junta troops.
Analysts say the informal militia has surprised junta forces with its effectiveness and the military has on numerous occasions called in airstrikes to support its troops on the ground.
Troops torched hundreds of buildings in the villages of Kinn, Upper Kinn and Ke Taung over three days last week, residents and media reports said.
On Thursday last week, Kinn residents fled as soldiers approached and began shooting into the air, said one resident who requested anonymity.
“The next morning we saw smoke rising from our village before they left,” the resident said. “Over 200 houses were burned down ... my house was totally burned down, only the concrete foundation is left.”
Drone footage purporting to show the aftermath obtained by Agence France-Presse (AFP) showed columns of smoke rising into the sky from the villages, which are on a stretch of about 8km along the Chindwin River.
A health clinic seen in the video matched the geolocation of one in Ke Taung village.
AFP digital verification reporters confirmed the footage had not appeared online before last week, but could not independently verify reports from the region.
Soldiers “raided and destroyed our houses,” said Aye Tin, a Ke Taung resident who requested to use a pseudonym. “They also burned motor boats that we use for transport and for carrying food for our village, including my boat.”
“My life is ruined, as I have lost my home ... and I [have] nothing left to do for a living,” Aye Tin added.
Satellite images provided by NASA last week showed fires in locations that matched Ke Taung and Kinn.
The junta previously rebutted claims that its troops have torched houses, accusing “terrorist” PDF fighters of starting the fires.
Separately, the junta on Friday said it would execute a former lawmaker from ousted Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a prominent democracy advocate, both of whom were convicted of terrorism, in the country’s first judicial executions since 1990.
Four people, including former Burmese lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw and democracy advocate Ko Jimmy, “who were sentenced to death will be hanged according to prison procedures,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP.
The junta has sentenced dozens of opposition figures to death as part of a crackdown on dissent, but Myanmar has not carried out an execution for decades.
Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy who was arrested late last year, was sentenced to death in January for offenses under anti-terrorism laws.
Prominent democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu — better known as “Jimmy” — received the same sentence from the military tribunal.
“They continued the legal process of appealing and sending a request letter for the amendment of the sentence, but the court rejected their appeal and request,” the spokesman said. “There is no other step after that.”
Two other men, who were convicted and sentenced to death for allegedly killing a woman they accused of being an informer for the junta in Yangon, would also be executed, the spokesman said.
No date has been set for the executions, Zaw Min Tun said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the junta’s decision, calling it “a blatant violation to the right to life, liberty and security of person,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Guterres called for the two democracy advocates to be released and all the charges against them to be dropped, Dujarric said.
“The secretary-general considers that the death penalty cannot be reconciled with full respect for the right to life,” he said. “Abolition is necessary and desirable for the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights.”
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