Dozens of charred bodies found in Myanmar

The remains of about 30 people, including women and children, were found in charred cars in Myanmar, according to a defecting official and an NGO, which blamed the deaths on the ruling military junta.

“When we went to explore the area this morning, we found the charred bodies in two trucks. We found 27 bodies,” a person in charge of the opposition movement to the military council, the PDF, told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Another witness reported that “27 skulls” had been identified, although “there were other bodies in the truck so burnt that they could not be counted”.

According to the Myanmar Witnesses Observatory, “35 people, including women and children, were burned and killed by the army on December 24 in Habrosu Canton”.

The NGO Save the Children warned on Saturday that two of its Myanmar staff were “missing” after their vehicle was attacked and set on fire in the same area.

Military council spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP that clashes erupted in the area on Friday after the army tried to stop seven “suspicious” cars in circulation, and that in this context several people were shot down.

According to the human rights NGO, the junta’s crackdown has killed more than 1,300 people in Myanmar, which has been in deep political crisis since the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February.