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State-run MRTTV said Tuesday’s fire in Kin Ma, a village of about 800 people in Magway District, was caused by “terrorists” and that media outlets that reported otherwise were “deliberately plotting to discredit the military”.
Reuters could not independently verify the cause of the fire. A spokesman for the military council did not respond to calls seeking comment.
All that was left of Kin Ma on Wednesday were about 30 houses, several villagers who gave accounts of the accident by phone and photos seen by Reuters, with about 200 reduced to piles of ash and bricks.
The fire was large enough to be recorded by NASA’s satellite fire tracking system at 9:52 p.m. local time (11:22 a.m. ET) on Tuesday.
The villagers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that security forces set fires after confronting opponents of the military council and at least two people were killed.
A 32-year-old volunteer helping displaced people from the village said that the two dead were elderly residents who were unable to flee their home during the fire. He said some people returned to the village on Wednesday and found the bodies.
The villagers who spoke to Reuters said that most of the villagers were hiding in nearby woods.
MRTTV said 40 “terrorists” set a house on fire in Kin Ma, sparking a fire that spread to 100 of the village’s 225 homes.
Myanmar has been gripped by violence and protests since the military ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, returning as the country’s outspoken ruler after a decade of temporary democracy and economic reform. The abuses sparked almost daily protests in many parts of Myanmar and fueled conflict between the army and rebel groups.
Pictures taken on Wednesday in the aftermath of the accident showed a thin haze of smoke over Kane, with no white coals billowing onto a black ground. Burnt wooden boards, sheet metal, bricks, and cooking utensils were scattered about, and only a few trees remained. Some pictures showed carcasses of animals.
“Reports that the military junta burned an entire village in Magway and killed elderly residents show once again that the military continues to commit terrible crimes and is indifferent to the people of Myanmar,” Britain’s embassy in Myanmar said on Twitter, citing its Twitter account. Ambassador Dan Chug.
Human rights groups have accused Myanmar forces of burning hundreds of villages in 2017 during an attack that drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. Security forces denied starting the fires and in some cases blamed the Rohingya for it.
Western condemnation of the junta escalated due to the military’s use of force against its opponents. The Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, a rights organization, said security forces had killed more than 860 civilians. The military said the number was lower.
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