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Myanmar junta forces torched nearly 200 homes in the northwestern region of Sagaing, the latest incident in a campaign to punish communities that support insurgents that has seen more than 100,000 homes burned since a 2021 coup, residents and a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
Sagaing, which stretches from central low lands up to mountains on the border with India, has been embroiled in fighting that surged across Myanmar after the military ousted an elected government four years ago.
In the latest military raids, soldiers rampaged across Sagaing’s Wetlet and Kanbalu townships on Sunday and Monday, destroying more than 180 homes and sending 10,000 people fleeing for safety, said a member of a pro-democracy militia, known as a People’s Defense Force, or PDF.
“They started by burning Koe Myo village. After that they continued burning Tho Boe village,” said the member of the Koe Myo PDF who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
He said he knew of one person killed and one wounded.
Most of the buildings in the two villages were burned down, he said.
RFA tried to telephone the junta spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment but he did not respond by the time of publication. The military has in the past denied accusations that it burns villagers’ homes.
Fighters battling to end military rule from both the PDFs that have proliferated and allied ethnic minority insurgents, enjoy much public support in a country where military rule is generally detested, especially since the ouster of a government led by Myanmar’s most popular politician, Aung San Suu Kyi.
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Myanmar soldiers have for decades employed anti-insurgent tactics in ethnic minority areas that include punishing communities seen as supporting opposition forces, often by killing inhabitants and razing villages, human rights groups say.
The monitoring and research group Data for Myanmar said more than 103,000 homes had been burned across Myanmar by the military and pro-junta militias since the 2021 coup,
“The Myanmar military and its affiliates have carried out arson attacks in areas with a strong resistance presence. These attacks targeted villages that support resistance forces,” Data for Myanmar said in a report on Wednesday.
“In addition to direct arson attacks during military operations, civilian homes have also been burned down through artillery, airstrikes, and naval shelling,” the research group said.
More than 69% of all the homes burned in Myanmar since the coup have been in Sagaing, the group said.
Other areas to have suffered were Magway, Tanintharyi and Mandalay regions, and Rakhine and Chin states, the group said.
Data for Myanmar called for pressure from the international community to put a stop to the burning, and for all sides to avoid harming civilians.
“All armed groups must promptly cease targeting civilians and civilian homes with attacks and arson,” the group said.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.