Women from Byine Phyu Village who escaped the area have told The Diplomat in an interview that more than 70 men were killed in a brutal mass killing carried out by Myanmar junta forces in 2024 in Byine Phyu Village, Sittwe Township, Rakhine State, which remains under the control of the military junta.
At around 8 a.m. on May 29, 2024, six vehicles carrying more than 200 Myanmar junta soldiers and members of the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) surrounded Byine Phyu Village in Sittwe Township, which was home to more than 2,000 people, according to local women.
After surrounding the village, soldiers reportedly pointed guns at residents and forcibly removed people from their homes, including elderly people, persons with disabilities and those who were ill.
In addition, around 800 men, including teenage boys, were reportedly blindfolded, had their hands tied behind their backs and were gathered together.
Women and children were also forced to lie face down on the ground and were made to sit together on the other side of the road, while suspected individuals were interrogated by junta soldiers, according to the accounts.
From around 7 p.m. that evening, continuous screams from the men and sounds of gunfire began to be heard and continued until around 4 a.m. the following morning. At dawn the next day, smoke was seen rising from a cemetery about 100 meters outside the village, according to the testimony of Ma Win Than, a survivor who spoke to The Diplomat.
Another survivor, Khin Khin Hla, said that a junta soldier told them the main purpose of targeting Byine Phyu Village was to take revenge for junta soldiers who had been killed in fighting in Kyauktaw.
“We lost many of our soldiers and their families in Kyauktaw. So we will kill you just as they were killed, burn your village down, or rape the women,” a mid-level junta officer reportedly told the villagers.
Survivors also said that on the night of May 30, a woman in her 20s with a mental disability was sexually assaulted by four soldiers.
At around 10 a.m. on May 31, women and children were relocated to Sittwe, while around 600 to 650 men from Byine Phyu were reportedly taken to a military battalion headquarters in Sittwe, according to survivors.
At present, at least around 400 residents of Byine Phyu Village have reportedly fled military-controlled areas and reached areas controlled by the Arakan Army (AA).
They have been accommodated in eight internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Pauktaw and Rathedaung townships. Some have reportedly continued moving northward to Kyauktaw and Paletwa townships.
Source: The Diplomat
