A Buddhist monk and three people from a familys were shot dead by the junta troops in Kyaukme Township, Shan State, and a 16-year-old girl from the family was raped before being killed, locals reported.
Junta troops, who were engaged in fierce fighting with the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), went to the internally-displaced people (IDPs) sheltering in a terrace farming hut near Naraikhkant Village in Kyaukme Township and committed the brutal killings at around 11:00 am on September 24.
After the junta troops left, villagers discovered four bodies at the scene, including a 16-year-old girl lying naked on her back. Near her feet lay a soldier’s uniform and a fragment of a gun barrel.
“The mother was found dead from a gunshot to the chest, with another bullet left in her bag by the junta troops. The boy was shot in the genital area, and the girl was raped before being shot in the head at close range,” a relative of the family said.
“Inside the hut, the mother and the boy were lying face down. From the way the mother was positioned, it looked like she was trying to apologize before she died. The girl’s body was found naked from the waist up, with some clothes hastily covering her lower body. A uniform and a gun barrel fragment were also there,” she told Shan Herald.
Before the killings began, a 40-year-old monk tried to leave the area as the junta troops approached. But the soldiers caught up with him, shot him dead, and dragged his body back to the hut.
The family members killed by regime soldiers were the mother, Pa Lyan (48); her 12-year-old son, Sai Than Maung; and her 16-year-old daughter, Nan Thein Sar.
A woman from Naraikhkant said the monk, U Dhamma Agga, was 40 and had been staying with IDPs for treatment due to poor health. He had gone to the cornfields but was caught and shot dead by soldiers.
“The monk was in poor health and couldn’t flee far, so the soldiers caught up with him. He tried to go toward the cornfields, but they followed and killed him, then dragged his body back to the hut,” she said.
On the morning of September 25, IDPs sheltering in nearby huts and villagers from Naraikhkant buried the bodies of the four victims.
The Shan Students Union has urged the international community not to cooperate with the junta and to take effective action against it, which has committed war crimes including the rape and murder of a minor girl and the killing of three other civilians.
According to aid workers, around 500 IDPs who fled the conflict are currently taking refuge in Naraikhkant and Hkaiktonhuong villages in Kyaukme Township and are in urgent need of food, clothing, and shelter.
In the third week of September, in Nawngping Village Tract of Kyaukme Township, residents were shocked to discover six decapitated bodies dumped in manure bags, left behind after the junta troops who had been stationed there departed.
Heavy fighting is currently underway between the junta and the TNLA near Sakhanthar Village, about 7 miles from TNLA-controlled Kyaukme Town. The junta is also attempting to weaken TNLA resistance by dropping bombs from Y-12 utility aircraft.
