I held my breath and it appeared that I was dead': What did eyewitnesses to the massacre in different parts of Myanmar see?

BBC Burmese

Post, World Service News

A bright Monday morning in early June should have been a happy day for Hunin Shi. It was their wedding day in Matau, a village in Myanmar located in Sagaing, the country's northwestern region.

She says that 100 friends and relatives were attending her wedding when a low-flying plane bombed the event, killing 33 people, including women and children.

"After the ceremony upstairs, we all came downstairs for pictures," Hanen Shi explains. Our families were standing in front of the wedding hall and there was another crowd near us. The bomb was dropped between us and them.

She says that another bomb was dropped in front of the house where the groom was staying. Eyewitnesses say that soldiers supporting the Myanmar military leaders then started shelling them from across a nearby river. At that time, people were trying to take the injured and the dead from there.

Apart from Mandalay and Magwe regions, Sagaing is also located in the central region of Myanmar known as the 'Dry Zone'. The area remained peaceful until a military coup against Aung San Suu Kyi's government in 2021.

Three years later, it is considered the stronghold of the People's Defense Forces (PDF), an anti-military group. The junta's army has been suffering losses fighting insurgent groups in Myanmar's border areas and often attacks civilians in the dry zone, which it says are pro-PDF.

In scenes seen on social media after the bombing of the wedding, dead bodies can be seen everywhere, with sheets, broken trees and the rubble of destroyed houses.

The married couple were protected by two coconut trees. Hanen Shi was knocked unconscious when pieces of debris hit her head and only regained consciousness the next morning.

"All I know about it is what people tell me," she says.

Myanmar's military has not released a statement about the attack, but army spokesman General Za Min Tun told the BBC that the information had been received from pro-junta forces. Having a meeting.

A wedding ceremony was attended by 100 friends and relatives when a low-flying plane bombed the event, killing 33 people, including women and children.

Pro-military Telegram channels said the village was attacked because two PDF members were getting married.

Hanen Shi says that her husband is an ordinary citizen and although she herself has been part of the PDF in the past. They are now part of the People's Administration Organization, a parallel government in areas considered PDF strongholds.

Hanenshi is not his real name but a revolutionary name he adopted after the coup. They fear that this airstrike was carried out on the information of a Janata supporter.

"There are people here who will be angry with me," she says. I have been a part of the revolution since the beginning.

Myanmar students and social activists who strive for a peaceful society have formed an organization called the NLTA, which says the junta's airstrikes have increased since the military coup.

In 2024 alone, there were 819 such airstrikes, 119 of which were in Segangum, more than any other region except Rakhine.

According to the organization, more than 100 schools and about 200 religious buildings have been damaged in airstrikes since the military coup.

The NLTA says the army committed "massacres" on 46 occasions in early 2024 alone.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Janata's strategy changed to the dry zone in 2023.

They say that more troops have been deployed in these areas and villages have also been burnt down in punitive raids after PDF attacks, leading to targeted operations. This led to increased violence and, according to the agency's July 2023 report, 'atrocities'.

According to the report, "On some occasions, soldiers brought PDF lists of militant names to villages and asked people to promise not to burn the village if they identified them."

The BBC asked the army to comment on the reports, but there was no response.

But the PDF has also burnt villages and massacred civilians. Most of the villages in the dry zone have openly supported either the Janata or the PDF, since then there has been considerable tension in the atmosphere.

On May 9, several PDF groups launched a joint attack on the village of Suniva, killing 31 civilians.

Two days later, a counter-attack killed several people in a village in Sigeng. Yan Ning (pseudonym), 30, woke up in the morning to the sound of gunshots and gunshots.

"I immediately started my bike to run away from here but I saw the army coming from both sides of the village," he said.

He decided to take shelter in a synagogue in the village where other villagers were also present. When two army troops arrived at the place of worship, they told us to come out and kneel on the ground, while looking down.

They say that some of them were shouting 'we will kill you all'.

The soldiers accused the villagers of protecting the PDF members and demanded that they hand them over to them.

A man near Yin Ning looked up at the soldiers.

"One of the soldiers saw them and hit them with a boot and also with the butt of his gun," explains Yan Ning.

Yan Ning says that a superior officer then ordered people to shoot.

"The soldiers shot them all again to make sure they were all dead," he says.

Yan Ning says it happened to a man next to me who was trying to move.

The bullet exited his skull and hit my chest. At that moment I knew I couldn't move. I held my breath and pretended to be dead. I did not dare to open my eyes again.

He says that only when the footsteps of the soldiers faded away did I start breathing slowly.

Yan Ning's chest wound was minor, but the incident killed 32 people.

A military spokesman said he did not want to comment on Yan Ning's statement, but said the PDF takes credit when it wins a skirmish and becomes the victim when it loses.

Yan Ning says that no one dared to go to the village again. Nothing was left in the village as they had demolished all the houses and destroyed the newly constructed well.

Innocent people were killed, mothers lost their children, families were torn apart. I will never forgive them.

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#Violence #Myanmar #Human rights #Freedom of expression #The army #protest