Byai Phyu: Eyewitnesses accuse Myanmar military of massacre

The names of witnesses are not being used to protect them. They told the BBC 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 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.

“They were so thirsty, standing all day in the sun, and begged for water. But the soldiers urinated in water bottles and gave them to the men,” the woman told the BBC.

She said she heard “lots of gunshots”, but didn’t see who was shot “because we had to keep our heads down”.

“I didn’t dare to look. They called someone standing near me. Then I heard a gunshot. He never came back.”

She she was crying throughout because she was worried about her husband and son: “I didn’t know if they were dead or alive. I was praying for them, ‘Buddha, please save them’.”

Survivors say they could hear soldiers asking for shovels to bury the bodies. They say some were clearly drunk.

More than 100 soldiers are believed to have raided the village Byai Phyu, which is just outside the state capital of Sittwe, on Wednesday.

Sittwe, a city with around 200,000 inhabitants, a large port and airport, is one of the Burmese army’s few remaining strongholds. But the insurgents are close, and enjoy the sympathy of much of the ethnic Rakhine population.

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.

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 late last year, to take his revenge on them.