Junta forces torch village in Myanmar

dpa Yangon A village in the north-western Sagaing region was burned down on Monday after it was shelled by junta forces, according to local media and resis...

dpaYangonA village in the north-western Sagaing region was burned down on Monday after it was shelled by junta forces, according to local media and resistance activists in the area.Some 100 junta soldiers entered Kaebar village in the Ayardaw township on Monday morning, prompting villagers to flee in fear of arrests and killings.The soldiers torched people’s homes, reducing some 100 houses to ash as no one came to extinguish the fire.“They came into the village by shelling artillery and the villagers ran into the forest. Then they burnt the houses,” according to a statement from a local defence force in the Ayardaw township.“They started to burn around 9:30 in the morning and they left the village in the afternoon,” it said.A witness told DPA, “Before they entered the villages, they shelled the artillery and we the villagers ran away. They burned our homes.We could not stop the fire in time.” The villagers were left with nothing, with many forced to find shelter in nearby areas, the witness added.Photographs and videos shared online showed smoke and the burned village, prompting anger as the images went viral.Fighting continues between junta forces and local civilian groups, with Sagaing among the areas most affected.Last week, soldiers were reported to have burned 11 villagers alive including six teenagers in the Sagaing region during a raid on a village.The military in the South-East Asian country staged a coup on February 1, ousting civilian head of government Aung San Suu Kyi and plunging Myanmar into chaos and violence.Myanmar’s military continues to launch brutal attacks and raids on protesters and civilians nationwide, targeting resistance.The junta also continues to block desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of displaced people and refugees at risk across the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.Meanwhile according to rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents the killings and human rights violations, at least 1,300 people have been killed, and more than 10,000 people have been arrested since the coup.