Myanmar massacre: Two Save the Children workers are missing after 30 villagers including women and children were rounded up by troops and shot
Two workers from the international Save the Children charity are missing in Myanmar after government troops shot and killed dozens of people on Friday.
Myanmar government troops rounded up villagers, some believed to be women and children, and fatally shot more than 30 and burned the bodies, according to a witness and other reports.
Purported photos of the aftermath of the Christmas Eve massacre in eastern Mo So village spread on social media in the country, fuelling outrage against the military that took power in a February coup.
Mo So village is just outside Hpruso township in Kayah state where refugees were sheltering from an army offensive.
The accounts could not be independently verified. The photos showed the charred bodies of over 30 people in three burned-out vehicles.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the February coup, with more than 1,300 people killed in a crackdown by security forces, according to a local monitoring group.
'People's Defence Forces' (PDF) have sprung up across the country to fight the junta, and have drawn the military into a bloody stalemate of clashes and reprisals.
Pictured: Burnt vehicles in Hpruso township in Myanmar's Kayah state where it is believed at least 30 people - including women and children - were shot and killed on Friday by Government troops. Two workers from the Save the Children have been missing since
A villager who said he went to the scene told The Associated Press that the victims had fled the fighting between armed resistance groups and Myanmar's army near Koi Ngan village, which is just beside Mo So, on Friday.
He said they were killed after they were arrested by troops while heading to refugee camps in the western part of the township.
Save the Children said that two of its staff who were travelling home for the holidays after conducting humanitarian response work in a nearby community were 'caught up in the incident and remain missing.'
'We have confirmation that their private vehicle was attacked and burned out,' the group added in a statement. 'The military reportedly forced people from their cars, arrested some, killed others and burned their bodies.'
'We are horrified at the violence carried out against innocent civilians and our staff, who are dedicated humanitarians, supporting millions of children in need across Myanmar,' said Save the Children's chief executive, Inger Ashing.
A villager told Reuters on Saturday that he had seen 32 bodies, while Save the Children said at least 38 people were killed.
Pictured: Smokes and flames billow from vehicles in Hpruso township, Kayah state, Myanmar, December 24, 2021, in this picture released by the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force
Myanmar government troops rounded up villagers, some believed to be women and children, fatally shot more than 30 and set the bodies on fire, a witness and other reports said Saturday
Mo So village, where the massacre is said to have taken place, is just outside Hpruso township in Kayah state where refugees were sheltering from an army offensive
The London-based charity said it had suspended operations in Kayah and parts of neighbouring Karen state and in the Magway region.
A report in the state-run Myanma Alinn daily newspaper on Saturday said that the fighting near Mo So broke out on Friday.
It said members of ethnic guerrilla forces, known as the Karenni National Progressive Party, and those opposed to the military drove in 'suspicious' vehicles and attacked security forces after refusing to stop.
The newspaper report said they included new members who were going to attend training to fight the army, and that the seven vehicles they were travelling in were destroyed in a fire. It gave no further details about the killings.
A member of a local PDF group said its fighters had found the vehicles Saturday morning after hearing the military had stopped several vehicles in Hpruso after clashes with its fighters nearby on Friday.
'When we went to check in the area this morning, we found dead bodies burnt in two trucks. We found 27 dead bodies,' he told AFP agency on condition of anonymity.
'We found 27 skulls,' said another witness who did not want to be named.
'But there were other dead bodies on the truck, which had been burned to pieces so we couldn't count them.'
The Myanmar Witness monitor said it had confirmed local media reports and witness accounts from local fighters 'that 35 people including children and women were burnt and killed by the military on 24th December Hpruso township'.
Satellite data also showed a fire had occurred around 1:00 pm (0630 GMT) on Friday in Hpruso, it added.
AFP news agency was unable to confirm the reports, but AFP digital verification reporters said the images purporting to show the incident had not appeared online before Friday evening.
The Myanmar military denied the claims.
People fleeing due to fighting between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU) line up to receive food at a temporary lodging for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Karen state, along the Thai-Myanmar border, on December 25, 2021
People fleeing due to fighting between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU) ride in a boat across a river in Karen state, along the Thai-Myanmar border, on December 25, 2021
The witness who spoke to the AP said the remains were burned beyond recognition, and children's and women's clothes were found together with medical supplies and food.
'The bodies were tied with ropes before being set on fire,' said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety.
He did not see the moment they were killed, but said he believed some of them were Mo So villagers who reportedly got arrested by troops on Friday.
He denied that those captured were members of locally organised militia groups.
Myanmar's independent media reported on Friday that 10 Mo So villagers including children were arrested by the army and four members of the local paramilitary Border Guard Forces who went to negotiate for their release were reportedly tied up and shot in the head by the military.
The witness said the villagers and anti-government militia groups left the bodies as military troops arrived near Mo So while the bodies were being prepared for cremation. The fighting was still intense near the village.
'It's a heinous crime and the worst incident during Christmas. We strongly condemn that massacre as a crime against humanity,' said Banyar Khun Aung, director of the Karenni Human Rights Group.
Earlier this month, government troops were also accused of rounding up villagers, some believed to be children, tying them up and slaughtering them. An opposition leader, Dr. Sasa, who uses only one name, said the civilians were burned alive.
People fleeing due to fighting between the military and the Karen National Union (KNU) board a boat in Karen state, along the Thai-Myanmar border, on December 25, 2021
A video of the aftermath of the December 7 assault - apparently retaliation for an attack on a military convoy - showed the charred bodies of 11 people lying in a circle amid what appeared to be the remains of a hut.
Fighting meanwhile resumed Saturday in a neighbouring state on the border with Thailand, where thousands of people have fled to seek shelter.
Local officials said Myanmar's military unleashed airstrikes and heavy artillery on Lay Kay Kaw, a small town controlled by ethnic Karen guerrillas, since Friday.
The military's action prompted multiple Western governments including the U.S. Embassy to issue a joint statement condemning 'serious human rights violations committed by the military regime across the country.'
'We call on the regime to immediately cease its indiscriminate attacks in Karen state and throughout the country, and to ensure the safety of all civilians in line with international law,' the joint statement said.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military on February 1 overthrew the elected government of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been sentenced to four years' detention and faces multiple other criminal charges.
At least 1,375 people have been killed and more than 8,000 jailed in crackdowns on protests and armed opposition since the coup, according to a tally of the Association for Assistance of Political Prisoners.
The military government disputes those numbers and says soldiers have also been killed in clashes.
In October Save the Children said its office in the western town of Thantlang was destroyed in junta shelling that also razed dozens of homes following clashes with a local anti-junta group.
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