Many innocent people were killed and injured between February and April in a brutal junta army crackdown on anti-junta forces in Ywangan Township, southern Shan State, according to the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF).

SHRF said that there are no existing Burma Army bases in Ywangan Township, which lies in the Danu Self-Administered Zone, but troops have been deployed from Kalaw-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 112 and LIB 117, and Lawksawk-based LIB 508 and LIB 509 under the Eastern Regional Command, to crack down on the People’s Defence Force (PDF) resistance movement in the area.

During this period, ten villagers were killed (nine of them tortured and massacred together) and 25 were arrested. Six houses were ransacked and looted, and a further seven houses torched. These abuses have terrorized local villagers, causing over 800 residents of Ywanggan Township’s Nwapangyi, Hlwasin, Lekaing, and Pe Yin Taung villages to flee their homes and shelter in nearby villages or forests.

Motorcyclist shot dead by junta troops

In the evening of 15 February 2022, Maung Zin Min Khaing, aged 21, was riding his motorbike back from his family’s lime farm to his home, when he was shot and killed by junta troops riding in army trucks in the middle of Nwapangyi Village.

The troops who were from LIB 112 and LIB 117, were driving at high speed into the village. After the troops had killed Maung Zin Min Khaing, they took his corpse with them to Kalaw Hospital, and cremated him in Kalaw without contacting his family.

Maung Zin Min Khaing was a manual labourer who had recently returned from Mawchee Mine in Karenni State to stay with his family in Ywangan Township.

Arbitrary arrest and detention of villagers

On 18 March 2022, about eight junta soldiers arrested three male villagers from their houses in Pe Yin Taung Village at about 9 am, and took them to Ywangan. They remain in detention, at an unknown location.

On 22 April 2022, at 1 am, junta troops arrested and detained U Nay Win in Pe Yin Taung Village. He was then transferred to Taung Lay Lone Prison, near Nyaung Shwe.

On 26 April 2022, at 6 am, about 50 junta troops came to Lekaing Village and checked the phones of youths who were in the village. They then arrested 21 youths and took them to their base at Kalaw. Until now the youths have been held incommunicado.

Looting and torching of villagers’ houses

On 20 March 2022, at about 2 am, five houses in Pe Yin Taung Village were ransacked and possessions were looted by junta troops.

On 12 April 2022, early in the morning in Nwapangyi Village, over 10 junta soldiers used petrol to burn down the house of Daw Swe Wa Wa, who had joined the CDM movement. The troops had been camping in Nwapangyi Temple for over a month and interrogating anyone travelling through the village.

On 13 April 2022, at about 1 am, about 20 junta troops came in a truck and burned down two houses belonging to U Ni and U Si in Hlwasin Village.

On 18 April 2022, at 8 pm, junta troops came and set fire to the house of Ko Win Khaing, a former village headman, in Nwapangyi Village.

On 20 April 2022, at 8 pm, junta troops came and set fire to Ko Pho Khaing’s house in Nwapangyi Village, but fortunately rain put out the fire before it could spread. Junta troops then ransacked the house.

On 21 April 2022, in the evening, Ko Thet Oo’s house at Nwapangyi Village was burned down by junta troops.

On 22 April 2022, at 1 am, junta troops burned down the house of U Nay Win, and another house in the same compound, in Pe Yin Taung village.

Torture and massacre of nine villagers

On 19 April 2022, nine male villagers from Pe Yin Taung were arrested by junta troops when returning to their village, having fled to hide in the forest since fighting broke out between the Burma Army and PDF forces on 15 April. The troops tortured the villagers, cutting them with knives on their hands and stomachs, and then shot them dead and burned their bodies along with car tires in a field behind Pe Yin Taung Village.

On 20 April fellow villagers found the pile of burned bodies. Some of the bodies were only partially burned, so the knife wounds and gunshot wounds were still visible. The villagers then buried the bodies.

The villagers were: Ko Tin Phay (aged 48), Ko Hla Soe (aged 30), Ko Tun Oo (aged 43), Ko Thet Aung (aged 37), Ko Myo Htwe (aged 27), Ko Win Naing (aged 50), Ko BaTu, Ko Hla Shwe, and Ko Pho Byaung.

Most residents of Pe Yin Taung have fled and remain displaced because they are still too afraid to return home.