June 10, 2026 | Burma Independent Voice (BIV)
The human rights monitoring group Fortify Rights issued a statement on June 9, 2026, revealing that the Myanmar military junta committed a brutal assault in Bago Region, launching an airstrike on a Buddhist monastery where displaced civilians were sheltering, followed by a ground operation where civilians were ruthlessly executed and survivors were unlawfully detained. According to a new investigation by Fortify Rights, this coordinated air and ground attack resulted in the deaths of 28 civilians, including women and children, constituting a clear war crime.
Fortify Rights documented that this massacre took place on March 5, 2026, in the Yedwingone Village Tract of Bago Region. Early that morning, military columns from Light Infantry Battalion 20, Infantry Battalion 26, and Light Infantry Battalion 439—all operating under the command of the 77th Light Infantry Division—raided the Yedwingone Village Tract. Upon entering the area, junta soldiers encountered and detained a 43-year-old local man who had gone out to harvest peanuts, along with several other villagers, tying their hands behind their backs. A survivor testified that while holding the villagers captive, the junta troops were seen snorting a type of white powder, acting erratically and behaving with extreme cruelty under the influence of drugs.
While tied up, the villagers clearly heard the soldiers communicating via military radio, with a field commander ordering to attack and bomb the monastery because PDFs were allegedly inside. Shortly after, a soldier radioed back reporting that a child had been shot dead, and the detained local man later gave a heartbreaking account realizing that the slain child was his own 14-year-old son who had attempted to flee in terror. Despite the villagers repeatedly explaining that there were no PDFs in the village, the junta forces ignored their pleas and proceeded to launch the airstrike on the monastery. The aerial bombardment completely destroyed the first floor of the concrete structure and left it entirely roofless and reduced to ash.
Post-strike forensic observations by survivors painted a grim picture of the carnage: the lifeless body of the 14-year-old boy was discovered adjacent to the monastery bell, while the farmer’s wife was found dead in a corner of the collapsed structure. Most horrifically, witnesses documented the corpse of a heavily pregnant woman near term, with the tiny hand of her unborn child protruding from her ruptured abdomen. Following the massacre, junta troops forced the surviving villagers at gunpoint to excavate two large mass graves. The military allotted a strict two-hour window to inter all 28 victims. Witnesses described being forced to arrange the deceased adult males in rows, while slain children were stacked directly on top of the women’s legs in a collective burial.
The evidentiary base for this investigation was gathered through Fortify Rights’ field inquiry conducted between March and April 2026, during which the organization traveled to Bago Region and secured verified evidence across multiple source categories. This included direct interviews with 13 eyewitnesses, survivors, and medical personnel, as well as digital forensics analyzing local PDF drone reconnaissance footage. Additionally, documentation was cross-verified using official casualty rosters provided by the National Unity Government (NUG) Bago Division, alongside investigative findings from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA/KNU) and the Fortify Rights Field Investigation Team. Following the atrocity, on the night of March 7, PDF troops operating under the command of the NUG Ministry of Defense allied with the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, to launch a counter-attack, driving the junta troops out and successfully rescuing the captive civilians from danger.
John Quinley, Director at Fortify Rights, stated that the Bago massacre clearly demonstrates the military junta’s ongoing strategy to terrorize civilian populations in areas perceived to support the resistance forces. He pointed out that deliberately targeting civilians and religious buildings directly violates international laws of war, including the Geneva Conventions, and constitutes a war crime. Fortify Rights called on United Nations member states and neighboring ASEAN countries to take immediate action to end the impunity enjoyed by the Myanmar military junta. Furthermore, the organization urged the international community to reject the coup leader Min Aung Hlaing’s attempts to legitimize his military rule, emphasizing the urgent need for international partners to increase political, economic, and humanitarian aid to the Myanmar pro-democracy movement, including direct coordination with the National Unity Government and state-level administrative bodies.
