Tortured to death
\n Islamabad
\nThe Myanmar military carried out a series of mass killings of civilians in July that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, a BBC investigation has found.
\nEyewitnesses and survivors said that soldiers, some as young as 17, rounded up villagers before separating the men and killing them. Video footage and images from the incidents appear to show most of those killed were tortured first and buried in shallow graves.
\nThe killings took place in July, in four separate incidents in Kani Township – an opposition stronghold in Sagaing District in Central Myanmar.
\nIt\u2019s thought the killings were a collective punishment for attacks by militia groups demanding a return to democracy following a military coup in February. A spokesman for the military government did not deny the allegations.
\nThe military has faced resistance from civilians since it seized control of the country, which is also called Burma, deposing a democratically-elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
\nThe BBC said it spoke to 11 witnesses in Kani and compared their accounts with mobile phone footage and photographs collected by Myanmar Witness, a UK-based NGO that investigates human rights abuses in the country.
\nThe largest killing took place in Yin village, where at least 14 men were tortured or beaten to death and their bodies thrown in a forested gully.
\nThe witnesses in Yin – whose names we have withheld to protect their identities – told the BBC the men were tied up with ropes and beaten before they were killed.
\n\u201cWe couldn\u2019t stand to watch it so we kept our heads down, crying,\u201d said one woman, whose brother, nephew and brother-in-law were killed.
\n\u201cWe begged them not to do it. They didn\u2019t care. They asked the women, \u2018Are your husbands among them? If they are, do your last rites\u2019.\u201d
\nA man who managed to escape the killings said that soldiers inflicted horrifying abuse on the men for hours before they died.
\n\u201cThey were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts and tortured all day,\u201d the survivor said.
\n\u201cSome soldiers looked young, maybe 17 or 18, but some were really old. There was also a woman with them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tortured to death Islamabad The Myanmar military carried out a series of mass killings of civilians in July that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 men, a BBC investigation has found. Eyewitnesses and survivors said that soldiers, some as young as 17, rounded up villagers before separating the men and killing them. Video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-234070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n