U.N. calls for investigation after reported massacre in Myanmar;
2 Save the Children workers missing
Vehicles burn in
Hpruso township in Kayah state, Myanmar, on Dec. 24. (AP)
27 dec Today
at 1:26 p.m. EST
The United Nations called for an investigation following reports
that at least 35 people, including a child, were killed in a massacre by
Myanmar’s military on Christmas Eve. Two workers for Save the Children, a
humanitarian organization, remain among the missing.
'Burn it all down’: How Myanmar’s military razed
villages to crush a growing resistance
Photos of the charred remains of
victims in torched vehicles circulated on social media in
Myanmar, where activists say more than 1,300 people have died amid unrest since
the military seized power on
Feb. 1 and ousted the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
“I condemn this grievous incident
and all attacks against civilians throughout the country, which are prohibited
under international humanitarian law,” U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Martin
Griffiths said in a statement Sunday.
He called for “a thorough and
transparent investigation into the incident so that perpetrators can be swiftly
brought to justice,” at a time when “millions of people in Myanmar remain in
dire need of humanitarian support.”
Myanmar court sentences Suu Kyi in
trial condemned as political
The U.S. Embassy in
Myanmar, in a statement Sunday,
called the killings a “barbaric attack” and said it would “continue to press
for accountability for the perpetrators of the ongoing campaign of violence
against the people.”
In Friday’s attack, security
forces reportedly rounded up civilians in Mo So, a village in the eastern state
of Kayah, where people have been displaced by military offensives and clashes
with armed groups.
A villager who visited the
scene told the Associated Press
that the occupants of three vehicles had been arrested, shot and burned in the
vehicles. They had been en route to camps for internally displaced people in
the western part of nearby Hpruso township, he said.
In Myanmar coup, grievance and
ambition drove military chief’s power grab
London-based Save the Children
said the military had attacked a car carrying two workers for the organization.
“Two of our staff, who were on
the way back to the office after conducting humanitarian response work in a
nearby community, were caught up in the incident and remain missing,” the aid
organization said in a statement Saturday.
“We have confirmation that their private vehicle was attacked and burned out.
The military reportedly forced people from their cars, arrested some, killed
others and burned their bodies.”
The aid agency, which placed the
death toll at 38, said it was “horrified at the violence carried out against
innocent civilians and our staff.” It said its own investigation was underway.
Anatomy of a crackdown: How
Myanmar’s military terrorized its people with weapons of war
Save the Children has been
working in Myanmar since 1995. It said Saturday that it had suspended its work
in the area and in parts of nearby Magway and Kayin.
The organization said Monday that
it did not have additional comment.
Myanmar’s government has not
commented on the allegations, the AP reported. But the country’s state-run
Myanma Alinn daily newspaper reported Saturday that the military torched seven
cars in fighting with guerrilla forces in Mo So on Friday, according to the AP.
Rohingya refugees worry that
Myanmar’s coup will only prolong their plight
A Washington Post investigation published
in December reported that Myanmar’s military has carried out a premeditated
campaign of arson and killing targeting civilians in western Chin state since
September.
By analyzing more than 300 videos
and photos, satellite imagery, eyewitness accounts and military planning
documents, The Post found that the attacks were planned as early as June and
that soldiers were given orders to “clear the region,” similar to the
military’s 2017 operation against Rohingya Muslims.
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