The Burmese army killed at least 40 people in four massacres: this is what emerges from a BBC investigation that cites eyewitnesses and survivors of the massacres, according to which many of the victims were also tortured. The mass killings, dating back to last July, took place in Kani Township, a stronghold of the opposition in the district of Sagaing, in the center of the country.

The most affected village was Yin, where at least 14 men were tortured or beaten to death, and their bodies were thrown into a wooded gully. Eyewitnesses and survivors told BBC reporters that the soldiers, some of whom were 17, rounded up the villagers, separated the women from the men, and only killed the men.

"We couldn't stand and watch, so we kept our heads down, crying," said one woman who lost a brother, nephew and brother-in-law. According to a man who managed to escape, the soldiers inflicted horrific abuse on the men for hours before they died. "They were tied up, beaten with stones and rifle butts and tortured all day," said the survivor.

In the nearby village of Zee Bin Dwin, 12 mutilated corpses were found buried in shallow mass graves: among these there was also a small body, possibly of a child, and the body of a disabled person. The killings, the BBC comments, may have been ordered as a collective punishment for attacks on the military by civilian militiamen in the area, demanding the restoration of democracy.

(Unioneonline / D)

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