Military Council forces burn hundreds of homes in Myanmar
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Local media in Myanmar report that hundreds of homes had been burned in the villages of Bin and Inn Ma Hte in the Sagaing region.
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The Army attacked a number of villages on January 31 in the Sagaing region in Myanmar.
Myanmar villagers have accused army troops of burning hundreds of homes in the country's restive northwest.
According to local sources, the Army attacked a number of villages on January 31 in the Sagaing region, one of the strongholds of the opposition against the military council.
A woman from Bin village in the Sagaing region, which has seen recent clashes, said troops had arrived in the early hours of Monday.
"They shelled artillery and fired guns before coming in," she said on Friday, adding that the sound had sent villagers fleeing.
Troops then set fire to around 200 houses, including her own, she said, requesting anonymity.
"We could not bring anything with us. We took some warm clothes only, and then we just ran away."
Troops also torched houses in nearby Inn Ma Hte village after a pro-military council militia was attacked by anti-military council fighters who then fled, according to one of the rebels.
Local media also reported that hundreds of homes had been destroyed in the two villages, and images obtained by AFP purporting to be of Bin village showed the remains of dozens of burnt-out buildings.
State-run TV ran a report on Thursday accusing opponents of the military council of starting the fires and published images it claimed showed burnt-out buildings allegedly destroyed by "terrorists".
The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since a coup last February, with about 9,000 people in detention and more than 1,500 people killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.
In mid-December, the US and UN condemned the junta over what Washington described as "credible and sickening" reports of the killing of 11 villagers, including children, in the Sagaing region.
Last Wednesday, the UN Security Council unanimously issued a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of all forms of violence in Myanmar, with Washington, London, and Ottawa announcing new sanctions against the ruling regime.
