Byian Phyu massacre
| Byian Phyu Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Myanmar civil war | |
  Site of massacre Site of massacre (Myanmar) | |
| Location | Byian Phyu, Sittwe Township, Rakhine State |
| Date | 29 May 2024 |
| Deaths | 76+ civilians |
| Perpetrators | |
| Charges | None |
The Byian Phyu Massacre was a mass killing of civilians from Wednesday, 29 May 2024 to 31 May 2024, in the village of Byian Phyu, Sittwe Township, Myanmar. During the massacre, Myanmar Army troops killed at least 76 civilians.[1]
Background
During the Rakhine State Offensive, the Arakha Army captured numerous townships near the state capital of Sittwe between March and May 2024 (including Ponnagyun Township, Ramree Township, and Buthidaung Township).[2][3]
An artillery shell landed in Sittwe on 9 March 2024, killing a Rohingya family. The SAC junta blamed the AA for the shelling.[4]
Incident
The Myanmar Army raided Byian Phyu village and detained residents for supposed links to AA.[1] The perpetrators checked the tattoos of male villagers, beating them up if they found a symbol even tangentially related to AA.[5] Then, soldiers reportedly raped at least three women, with two being killed.[1] Many civilians were massacred near a lake, and their bodies were burned. After burning 80 homes and a monastery, the soldiers and militants took women, children, and elderly villagers to a field and monasteries in Sittwe. They were blocked from returning home.
Reactions
The Arakha Army vowed to punish those involved in the killings, and claimed that the Arakan Liberation Army assisted the perpetrators.[6][7][1] The National Unity Government of Myanmar condemned the killings and promised cooperation with other organizations to seek justice.
Meanwhile, SAC spokesperson, Zaw Min Tun swiftly denied that a massacre occurred. According to the junta, Myanmar Army soldiers attempted to question suspected AA members "for security purposes," when three men were shot after taking an officer's gun.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Arakan Army: Myanmar Junta Killed 76 in Village Massacre. Brian Wei. The Irrawaddy. June 4, 2024.
- ^ Spotlight - The Looming Battle for Sittwe: March 12, 2024. Michael Martin. Center for Strategic and International Studies
- ^ "AA Claims Seizure of Buthidaung Near Bangladesh Border". The Irrawaddy. 18 May 2024. Archived from the original on May 29, 2024.
- ^ Indiscriminate shelling kills family in western Myanmar. Radio Free Asia. March 11, 2024
- ^ Myanmar soldiers cut off tattoos and gave detainees urine to drink, witnesses tell BBC. Jonathan Head. June 5, 2024. BBC.
- ^ စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့်ALPတို့၏ ဗျိုင်းဖြူရွာလူသတ်ပွဲ. Myanmar Now. June 6, 2024. Raung Ne
- ^ ဗျိုင်းဖြူကျေးရွာမှာ အစုလိုက်အပြုံသတ်ဖြတ်မှု မကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ဘူးလို့ စစ်ကောင်စီ ငြင်းဆိုချက် မှန်၊ မမှန်. Voice of America. June 5, 2024