Four abductees—including a 17-year-old boy—were beaten, tied up, and forced by the Myanmar military to stand between them and local resistance during a clash.
The military council used four abductees—including a teenager—as human shields during a clash in Moebye, southern Shan State on Friday, family members and neighbours of an escaped detainee confirmed.
The junta’s armed forces broke into a church in the Pwe Kone third ward of Moebye that afternoon before a battle broke out with the local civilian defence force, abducting three men and a 17-year-old boy who had remained in the church on security duty. The detainees were then reportedly used as human shields during the fighting.
“They beat them up. They forced a 17-year-old to wear a bag that held a bomb and threatened to shoot him if he ran away. The kid and my father were used as human shields in the front, but not the other two,” the son of the man who escaped told Myanmar Now.
Other sources told Myanmar Now that by later that night, all four had been forced to act as human shields.
When the clash started on Friday evening, the faces of the abductees were covered with longyis to block their sense of sight and prevent them from running away, as they were placed near the frontline. Later, their hands were tied, and they were forced by the junta’s armed forces to stand near the area’s railroad between the fighting groups, locals said.
A neighbour of the escaped abductee recalled that the Moebye People’s Defence Force (MBPDF) was stationed at one end of a road near the area’s railroad, with the junta’s armed forces opposite them.
“The abductees were left standing in pairs with their hands tied. And a teenager was forced to carry a bag with a bomb inside,” he told Myanmar Now.
It was while he was forced to stand in the road that one 43-year-old detainee escaped.
“He escaped at night and hid inside a home and came to us in the morning,” another neighbour said, adding that he had been visibly injured by the abuse inflicted by the regime soldiers.
“There are bruises on his hands from being tied with ropes. He can’t even eat. He was kicked in the back so many times. He was kicked in the head and teeth as well. His left eye is all swollen,” the neighbour said.
It is still believed that the teenager and two other men—aged 53 and 56—are being held by the troops.
At least four regime soldiers were killed during the clash with the MBPDF, and local homes were destroyed when the military opened fire on the local resistance with artillery, the MPDF announced, adding that locals in the area were also placed under arrest.
Myanmar Now has not been able to confirm these, as well as reports that the clashes intensified over the weekend.
The Progressive Karenni People’s Force (PKPF) announced that some 40 locals and members of defence groups had been killed by the military council as of June 3 in Kayah State, which is just south of Moebye.
source myanmar-now