22 People Died In A Monastery, Including Threeacters: Myanmar's Rebel Group And Military Regime Accuse Each Other

Illustration of anti-military demonstrations in Myanmar. (Wikimedia Commons/Sithumen/VOA)

JAKARTA - At least 22 people, including three monks, were killed in a monastery in Shan State, southern Myanmar on Saturday, with local rebel groups and military-backed juntas accusing each other of committing massacres.

Photos and a video taken from the incident, provided by the Karenni National Defense Forces (KNDF) and verified by CNN, showed at least 21 bodies piled up around the Nan Nein Monastery, located in Nan Nein Village, Pinlaung Township.

Many of them were seen wearing civilian clothes and had several gunshot wounds. Among them are also three bodies wearing turmeric orange cloaks, which are usually worn by Buddhist monks.

In the video provided by the group, there are bullet holes visible on the walls of the monasteries.

The bodies were seen lined up and fell on the walls of the monasteries with a pool of blood on the ground below them.

Both the KNDF and the Myanmar military agreed that fighting took place in the area, but there were two narratives competing against each other after the murder at the monasteries.

"The Myanmar military killed three monks and 19 civilians on March 11," KNDF spokesman Philip Soe Aung told CNN, as quoted March 15.

"Our troops arrived at the monasteries on March 12 and saw the bodies," continued KNDF.

Fierce fighting has occurred between local rebel groups and the Myanmar military in the area near Nan Nein Village last week.

The fighting expanded with the military shooting and launching direct airstrikes at the village, forcing civilians to take cover in the nearest vihara, Soe Aung said.

Drawing the massacre, Soe Aung said: "These civilians and monks were tortured and executed by the Burmese military."

"The monks did not want to leave their monasteries so civilians and monks lived there together," he continued.

Due to the way the bodies were found marching in front of the monasteries, Soe Aung suspected that they were killed by a "treague of hitmen."

All the unarmed victims and many bodies showed signs of "torture and beating" with "a gunshot wound to the head," he added.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Myanmar's junta Major General Zaw Min Tun, dismissed allegations that the military was responsible.

In comments published by the government-owned newspaper Global Light of Myanmar on Tuesday, he blamed the "terrorist group" for the violence at the monasteries, naming the Karen National Police Forces (KNPF), the People's Defense Forces (PDF) and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), a government that brings together ethnic groups in the state.

Zaw Min Tun claimed the fighters opened fire after "Tatmadaw (worked together) with local militias and took security measures for the region."

"When terrorist groups opened fire hard... some villagers were killed and injured. (The others) fled," said Zaw Min Tun.

But Soe Aung, spokesman for the Karenni National Defense Forces, told CNN that "military posts" were scattered along the route to the village. But he said there were no PDF soldiers or KNDFs in the village or monasteries.

"It's not our policy to put fighters in the village because it can cause conflict with civilians," he explained.

The area has been fighting for several weeks, he added - mostly concentrated in the forest and mountain areas around it.

Myanmar's military attack on Nan Nein Village also included a "bombing" involving airstrikes, according to the KNDF.

In a separate statement to CNN, a spokesman for the Karenni Army (KA), the armed wing of the KNPP, confirmed that fighting took place in Nan Nein Village on March 10 "between the military and the combined forces of the KA, KNDF and PDF forces."

Myanmar's military and junta spokesmans did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

Myanmar has been mired into political violence since military leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power in the 2021 coup.

The coup was followed by a brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that caused civilians to be shot on the street, kidnapped in night raids and allegedly tortured in detention.

Since the coup, at least 2,900 people in Myanmar have been killed by junta forces and more than 17,500 people have been arrested, most of whom are still in custody, according to an advocacy group of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The coup has also resulted in a spike in fighting between the military and a number of resistance groups allied with ethnic militias that have long existed in a country that has been hit by insurgencies for decades.