Military Council troops destroyed houses and contaminated stored rice with acid and soap powder in Nyaung Pin Thar, a village of about 200 houses, in Myaing Township, Sagaing Region on January 29 and 30.
“Soldiers stayed in the village for one night and two days. They slaughtered and ate the pigs in the village. Homes were destroyed. They smashed oil cans and refrigerators. they broke water pipes and smashed ponds. Motorcycles were parked on the roads. The remaining beans and rice were mixed with soap powder and acid from batteries,” said a Nyaung Pin Thar villager.
About 100 troops marched from Myaing Township to Mwe Ton Village in Pearl Township, where they burned down 199 houses. They also, not for the first time, raided the villages of Pann Ywar and Hlaw Kar where they also again set houses on fire. 175 houses were burnt down in Pan Ywar and more than 200 houses were set on fire in Hlaw Kar.
“They arrived in Mwe Ton village on the morning of January 31. They started burning Mwe Ton village at 8PM. We, the villagers of Pann Ywar, had to flee. They returned to Pann Ywar village and set it on fire again at around 12 o’clock at night. Now the houses have burnt down,” said a villager standing in front of the burnt houses.
A video recorded by the local people also shows a burning motorcycle and the remains of a house.
A farmer from Pann Ywar said that the soldiers burned down the barns where farmers stored their harvested crops and that the fire also killed cattle and pigs.
Myawaddy TV, a state-owned television station, falsely reported propaganda and said that the fire was started by a local People's Defense Forces on February 3.
A villager said: “Some grandparents who could not run were left in the village [when we fled]. They said that the soldiers had pulled them out and set their houses on fire, and we saw this from the hills [we had fled to] near the village.”
A 60-year-old grandmother who survived recalled, "When my neighbor's house caught fire, I could only move slowly with [the help of] a stick." She suffered minor burns to her right ankle and thigh, which were recorded on video.
Reports say that, currently, about 1,500 people from Pann Ywar, Hlaw Kar and Nyaung Pin Thar villages have been affected by the burning.
"The weather in our area is quite cold. Now the refugees are living in the jungle and on the ground. We used our group’s funds to buy and provide rice, oil, salt and medical supplies,” said Bo Moe Khar, an information officer for the Shwe Darr Bo-Local People's Defense Force.
He called on people to support the needs of the internally displaced people (IDPs) rather than fighting because, despite the presence of military councils, helping the IDPs is a priority.
