Three monks were among the 29 people who died at a monastery on Saturday in Southern Shan State, Myanmar, as local insurgent groups and the junta supported by the military exchanged accusations of committing a massacre.
Myanmar monastery massacre
Images shared online on Sunday revealed a number of bloody bodies next to the local monastery’s entrance, three of which belonged to Buddhist monks.
There were several bullet holes all over the monastery’s facade.
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The most recent incident took place on Saturday in the village of Nanneint, according to local resistance sources, and comes just after junta troops are accused of killing 17 villagers in Myinmu Township in the Sagaing District earlier this month.
The anti-regime Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) uploaded the images, which Burma Today independently verified. The images clearly depict gunshot wounds to the victims’ heads and other body parts.
Pools of blood were discovered on the ground below the victims, which were reportedly lined up and slumped against the walls of the monastery.
A KNDF spokeswoman told Burma Today that while seven more dead are still remaining at the scene, a total of 22 have since been found.
The representative, who spoke under the condition of anonymity for security reasons, claimed that there were still seven bodies behind the monastery that had not yet been found.
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Since military leader Min Aung Hlaing took control of the 55 million-person Southeast Asian country in a coup in 2021, which dashed all hopes the country would establish a functioning democracy, Myanmar has been engulfed in political violence.
Following the coup, there was a savage military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, during which civilians were shot in the street, kidnapped during nocturnal raids, and allegedly tortured while detained.
Major General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the Myanmar government, rejected claims that the military was to blame.
He cited the Karen National Police Force (KNPF), the People’s Defence Force (PDF), and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), an administration that unites ethnic groups in the state, as “terrorist groups” in remarks published in the state-run newspaper Global Light of Myanmar on Tuesday.
According to the advocacy group Aid Group for Political Prisoners, since the coup at least 2,900 individuals in Myanmar have been killed by junta troops and over 17,500 have been detained, the majority of whom are still in custody (AAPP).
In a nation that has been plagued by insurgencies for decades, the coup has also led to an increase in violence between the military and a variety of resistance organizations aligned with long-standing ethnic militias.
The military junta of Myanmar has frequently denied these allegations despite mounting evidence. Opposition organizations have accused the military of carrying out mass executions, airstrikes, and war crimes against civilians in the areas where combat has raged.
