Sagaing Region, Butalin Township Shwe Taung Village. Residents said that at around 10:00 a.m. yesterday morning, January 2, 13 houses were burned down by a military council column and two elderly people were killed.
It was the second time that the village was set on fire, and two elderly people who couldn’t run were caught in the fire. Ko Min, the communications officer of Butalin Township Public Administration, told RFA. “ 13 houses were burnt down. A 92-year-old crippled old man. An old man who was over 100 years old and couldn’t move was caught in the fire. One of our soldiers was killed. He was scouting in the forest and stumbled upon it.”
Ko Min said that one of the two people who died in the fire was the one who begged his house not to burn down because he couldn’t run away when Shwe Taung Village caught fire for the first time. Residents said that the column entered Shwetaung village from the side of Ywa She village, burned the houses, and then returned to Butalin police station.
Locals said that the column which burnt the village was from the Yangon Air Security Battalion, which was coming to reinforce Butaling, but RFA could not independently confirm this. Locals said that Butalin Township’s internet line has been cut off, when military council troops enter the military village, the phone lines are often cut when they come.
U Aye Lwin, spokesman for the Military Council’s Sagaing Division, told RFA to contact only the Minister of Security and Border Affairs because he does not know about security matters. General Zaw Min Tun, who is authorized to speak for the military council, has denied to RFA that it was not their troops who burned the houses.
According to the “Data for Myanmar”, an independent research group, released a statement on December 10th it said since the military coup in February 1st 2022, to November 30, more than 27,000 houses in Sagaing were burned down.
2023 Sagaing Division, which was destroyed by fire on January 2, Butalin Township While seeing some houses from Shwetaung village. (Photo: Chin Cable Network Channel)
