Decades of impunity for the worst crimes have created a mindset that soldiers can brazenly commit such atrocities without fear of being held accountable.
The United Nations issued a statement that it was “ appalled and alarmed at the escalation of grave human rights abuses in Myanmar.”īut the killings – and the burnings of the bodies – bear all the hallmarks of the Myanmar military. Local media reported that government security forces committed the killings in retaliation for an attack earlier that morning by anti-junta militia. Villagers returning from hiding after fleeing a military raid used their mobile phones to record the charred remains on December 7, 2021. Photos and video circulated online show the remains of the victims in Don Taw village, Sagaing Region, in northwestern Myanmar. In a year where atrocities by Myanmar’s military have been commonplace, credible reports of a massacre of 11 people, including 5 children, who were bound, shot, and then burned, have sparked revulsion and outrage.
A resident walks past smoldering houses following an alleged military attack on Kinma village, Pauk township, Magway Region, in central Myanmar, June 16, 2021.
