At least 22 people were shot dead at close range in central Myanmar last week, according to a doctor's post-mortem report, in what opponents of military rule say was a massacre of civilians conducted by the army.
A spokesman for Myanmar's junta, which staged a coup two years ago to depose the elected government, said its soldiers had been involved in clashes with rebel fighters in the Pinlaung region of southern Shan state but had not harmed any civilians.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) and another rebel group entered the village of Nan Neint after government forces arrived to provide security with a local people's militia.
"When the terrorist groups violently opened fire … some villagers were killed and injured," he said.
He said the army had only counterattacked against the three resistance groups, and reports that soldiers were responsible for killing villagers were misinformation.
Reuters could not independently verify any of the claims.
A spokesman for the KNDF said its soldiers entered Nan Neint on Sunday and found dead bodies scattered at a Buddhist monastery.
Video and photographs provided by the KNDF and another group, the Karenni Revolution Union (KRU), showed bullet wounds to the torso and heads of the dead bodies and bullet holes in the monastery walls.
Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the material.
Resistance says it saw soldiers burning homes
Exactly what happened on Saturday morning remains unclear, but the aftermath was documented in photos and video.
Those released on social media by the anti-government Karenni Nationalities Defence Force showed Buddhist monks and other men with apparent bullet wounds lying near and against the wall of the monastery's main building.
They also show pools of blood and bullet holes dotting the wall.
A local leader of the Karenni guerillas who took the photos said his group's snipers in the surrounding area had used their rifle scopes to watch about 100 soldiers firing their guns and torching houses as they entered the village on Saturday morning.
He said the snipers were unable to watch more because they had to withdraw after coming under fire from government aircraft.
The Karenni guerilla, who asked not to be identified because of fear of reprisals by the military, acknowledged that his forces had not witnessed the killings but had only seen the bodies when they entered the village late on Saturday and took photos.
He strongly denied the resistance forces had been responsible for the killings, as had been alleged by the army and its supporters.
The military government's tight restrictions on travel and information make it virtually impossible to verify details of such incidents.
The village is about 80 kilometres east of the capital, Naypyitaw.
Reports of the killings came about a week after accusations that soldiers earlier this month rampaged through several villages in western Myanmar, carrying out rapes and beheadings and killing at least 17 people.
A post-mortem report by Dr Ye Zaw, who is part of the National Unity Government — an exiled civil administration formed since the coup — said automatic weapons were likely used at close range to kill 22 people, including three saffron-robed monks.
"Since there were no military uniforms, equipment and ammunition found on the rest of the bodies, it is evident that they were civilians," said the report, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters.
"Since all the dead bodies were found within the compound of Nan Neint monastery, it is evident that this was a massacre."
Fighting has been raging in the area for at least two weeks, with about 100 structures burnt down in and around the site of the alleged massacre in Nan Neint, according to local media reports, resistance forces and satellite images verified by Myanmar Witness, an organisation that documents human rights violations.
Junta accused of targeting civilians
The South-East Asian country has been in crisis since the military seized power in February 2021, ending a decade of tentative steps towards democracy by unseating the administration led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Resistance movements, some armed, have emerged nationwide, which the military has countered with lethal force and labelled "terrorists".
Some ethnic military forces have also sided against the junta.
Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister in the National Unity Government, said the junta had ramped up combat operations and attacked groups of unarmed civilians in at least four instances in the last two weeks.
"It is clearly evident that the strategy of the junta is to target civilians, which is a crime against humanity," he said.
The junta has denied it targets civilians, saying its forces only responded to attacks by "terrorists".
At least 3,137 people have been killed in the military crackdown since the coup, according to the non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The United Nations has accused the military of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Moves to push Myanmar peace plan
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday the city-state would work with Indonesia and other South-East Asian countries, as well as partners like the United Nations, to push Myanmar's military rulers to implement a stalled peace plan.
He was speaking after meeting visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Mr Lee said the leaders regretted the lack of progress on a peace plan led by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Myanmar.
"Singapore will continue working with Indonesia and ASEAN members, plus ASEAN's partners like the UN, to push for the full implementation of the five-point consensus," he said, referring to the peace plan that Myanmar's top general agreed to with ASEAN.
Indonesia currently chairs the 10-member ASEAN bloc.
ABC/wires
