CHRISTMAS EVE MASS KILLINGS
One of them details mass killings in Kayah State on Christmas Eve where about 35 people, including women and children were killed and burned in various vehicles.
Witnesses said some were even torched alive.
During that media event, the NUG lined up witnesses including doctors who did autopsies on the bodies as well as victims’ families to give their testimonies.
The NUG also aired drone footage showing the extent of the damage in Kayah State – a group of burnt-out vehicles with completely charred corpses inside them.
Witnesses said some bodies were too brittle to be moved intact.
Founding member of Special Advisory Council for Myanmar Chris Sidoti, an international human rights and law expert, said the situation in Myanmar is bad and getting worse.
“The Myanmar military really is a terrorist organisation and there’s no other way to describe it,” Mr Sidoti said.
Even after two high-level meetings between Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in January, violence in the country has yet to cease.
Less than two weeks after the leaders met in early-January, Cambodia voiced serious concern over Myanmar’s violence, saying that it could jeopardise the outcome of Mr Hun Sen’s visit.
One of the outcomes hailed by both sides as positive during the two-day meeting, was a ceasefire.
The Myanmar army had extended a truce with ethnic armed organisations till the end of 2022, though it specifically left out the fighter forces from NUG.
“The truce is a joke,” Mr Sidoti said.
“It has never been intended to apply to all of the violence taking place in Myanmar. But even in its limited scope, applying to the ethnic armed organisations, it is not being honoured by the military itself.”
Meanwhile, both sides look set to press on with their cause, with neither side backing down.
Many civilians have shed their urban identities and taken up arms in the jungle to train and fight against the Tatmadaw.
In urban areas, soft targets such as government buildings, security checkpoints and police stations continue to be targeted with bomb blasts.
In some cases, resistance forces reportedly assassinate those who they suspect are spies of the military.
“I don’t see violence as a solution to any problem,” Mr Chris Sidoti said.
“Having said that, the NUG has only ever talked about violence as a defensive mechanism.
“The NUG is not having air raids and bombing towns and villages. It’s not slaughtering people in that dozens of civilians who are bound and then set on fire.”