Mizzima Editorial
In eerie echoes of the brutality of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, the Myanmar military junta is killing and torturing people as it desperately tries to hang on to power in a country inaptly dubbed the “Golden Land”.
Just over the last couple of weeks, the horrific story has been exposed of a brutal and vicious massacre of over 50 people in the village Byai Phyu, which is just outside the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe. This is one of many massacres and killings since the 2021 military coup, displaying the brutality of this “Pol Pot-like regime” that appears to hate its countrymen and women. Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Hlaing appears to encourage this horrific behaviour of his troops.
More than 170 soldiers are believed to have raided the village Byai Phyu as part of operations to tackle the Arakan Army (AA) that has grabbed a number of towns and junta military positions in Rakhine.
Witnesses told the media that everyone in the village, which has just over 1,000 households, were kept out in the open for two days, under the sun, with little or nothing to eat or drink, while dozens of men were tied, blindfolded and some taken away in trucks for further interrogation. Many are yet to return.
According to a BBC report, men who had tattoos showing support for the AA were singled out for especially harsh treatment, locals said. One eyewitness said the soldiers cut out the tattooed skin, poured petrol onto it and set it alight. Men were taken away one by one, brutalized and shot. Several women were gang-raped. Valuables were looted. Another eyewitness recalled an army officer telling the villagers he had come from the fighting in northern Shan State, where the military suffered heavy losses under Operation 1027 late last year, to take his revenge on them.
The National Unity Government (NUG) said in a statement that 51 people aged between 15 and 70 were “violently tortured and killed”. The AA estimates the death toll to be more than 70 people.
The Myanmar junta has denied the accusations, but it is clear that this is yet another massacre perpetrated by soldiers on civilians, displaying a level of brutality on a par with Pol Pot and the Killing Fields of Cambodia.
“Myanmar’s Year Zero” is happening in front of our eyes – unlike the killings in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 that took place behind a security curtain and media blackout. Independent media reported Myanmar’s Byai Phyu massacre a day after it happened, details beginning to emerge a day or two later. Various organizations including the United Nations have spoken out. But it appears tough to hold the Myanmar junta accountable. The junta has no honour and no soul, using their troops to raise fear amongst the population.
“Vicious cruelty” is how the AA referred to this massacre. While some might argue that comparing Min Aung Hlaing to Pol Pot – responsible for the murder of close to 2 million Cambodians – doesn’t quite fit, anybody hearing the testimony of the survivors of the Byai Phyu massacre will recognize the similarly between the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and the brutality of the Myanmar junta soldiers. They are perpetrating horrific crimes against humanity, a clear breaking of the laws of war.
