"It is never too late to stop this campaign of terror."
Shwe Sanpin Sayadaw, a respected Buddhist abbot from Myanmar, recently shared this reflection along with the accompanying photos. He calls upon Burmese soldiers, the vast majority of them Buddhist, to immediately stop their ongoing campaign of burning up homes and crop fields, and to cease their looting and killing spree.
Although the foreign press has long since given up covering the daily atrocities occurring, things in Myanmar are worse now than they’ve ever been, as bands of soldiers are marauding defenseless villages across the Sagaing Division, and burning and killing all that stand in their way. This senseless violence has no clear objective or aim other than as a last, desperate attempt to cow villagers into fear and submission as they face the brunt of such inhumane and shocking violence heaped upon them and their community.
The voice of such a revered Buddhist abbot appealing directly to the aggressors to stop their crimes, and referencing Buddhist scripture and the fear of painful rebirths as a reason to defect, shows the heightened stakes of the current tension.
Sayadaw’s plea also provides a glimpse into the reality of how dangerous the Burmese countryside has become, and is one of the reasons that Better Burma is continuing to send what funds we are able to collect to these villages now under such direct assault.
“While we are here doing meritorious activities, our relatives in the motherland are running away from the invading soldiers who burn their homes into ashes.
These photos are taken from a small village called Leh Nhauk, at the junction of Ah Laung Taw Katha Pha and Shwe Sanpin bridge street. It is not known exactly how many houses were destroyed, but as you can see in the photos, there are two-story homes that may be valued at least 400-500 lakhs (USD 20-25k).
For the villagers, it is something like 10 years of struggle and full dedicated effort to save enough to build a home, and now it only took less than an hour to fall into a pile of ashes.
Not long ago, another village called, Thidin of Pale township was torched. In Monywa city, the childhood teacher of a high-ranking Buddhist monk, U Garawa of State Sangha Maha Nayaka committee, was evacuated from his Maha Zawtika Monastery by his followers, carrying the 98 year old monk in mortorbike.
The Junta forces attacked the village with heavy artillery before torching over 120 homes including Sayadaw’s monastery.
There have been over 2,000 houses been burned down so far in Yinmarpin and Pale townships alone in Sagaing division! This unwholesome act and demerit will have karmic payback to those who command and those who carry out the offense.
The tactic of burning down to destroy the lives of your own citizens is egregious. It is never too late to stop this campaign of terror.
Isn't there another way other than widespread torching upon your own people?
I beg you to stop this large scale arson of the villages immediately!
At present, there are over 500 displaced people cared for and fed with what is available at the Panna Dana school of Shwe San Pin Bridge camp.
Pray that Myanmar returns to a peaceful state quickly.”
