A military column under No.22 Brigade set fire to houses in Amyet Taung village in Rathedaung Township on the afternoon of 5 July at about 2 p.m., according to locals.

The village has 187 houses and about 10 of them were incinerated, an anonymous villager told the DMG.

“When the military troop entered the village, all villagers were at the monastery. The monastery is at the south end of the village, but they torched houses in the north section of the village. Ten houses were destroyed,” the villager said.

Elderly people and a few men remained in the village while women and children fled to their relatives’ houses in nearby villages on the evening of 4 July, said a woman who is hiding at Nga San Baw village.

“I saw houses catch fire; I don’t know how many houses were destroyed. We heard they (Tatmadaw) arrived in Kyauk Pyin Seik village on 4 July. So, we became scared and fled to other villages,” she said.

The DMG called Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun yesterday evening about the incident involving arson, but he said he did not know anything about the situation at that time.