SAGAING, Myanmar: Anti-coup fighters in Myanmar patrol the smouldering ruins of a burnt village after what they say was a reprisal attack by junta troops struggling to crush resistance to last year's military coup.
Win Soe said junta troops brought destruction to his village of Tharyarkone, about 100 km west of Myanmar's second city Mandalay, late last month."There had been no fighting here and they just came to destroy things - they torched 60 houses in our village," Win Soe said. Often armed with little more than homemade weapons and knowledge of the terrain, some of these groups have surprised the military with their effectiveness, according to some analysts.
The military accuses PDF fighters - which it has declared"terrorists" - of setting the fires and says their assassination campaigns have killed hundreds including Buddhist monks, teachers and medical workers. Even in villages that escape being torched, locals said they lived in fear of violence from the military.