The National Unity Government (NUG) held a press conference to present forensic evidence showing what happened when at least 22 people were massacred by the Myanmar junta military at the Nam Nein Village monastery in Pinlaung Township on 11 March.

According to evidence gathered by the NUG a column of soldiers from the junta army Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 518 and about 50 fighters from the junta-aligned Pa-O National Organisation/Pa-O National Army (PNO/PNA) set up camp on Dragon Pagoda Hill in Shan State south’s Pinlaung Township on 9 and 10 March.

As the junta forces were setting up camp, local defence forces advised villagers in the surrounding villages to flee. Most did, but a group of villagers and monks told the defence forces that they would remain in Nam Nein Village to protect the village.

On the evening of 10 March, the junta troops fired into Nam Nein Village, before entering it at 5:30 a.m. on the morning of 11 March.

To establish what happened next the NUG had to investigate the scene of the massacre, the monastery at Nam Nein Village, on the evening of 11 March after the junta soldiers had left. Helping them to carry out the investigations were Dr Ye Zaw a Karenni medical examiner and members of the NUG-controlled Karenni Police Force.

22 bodies were found at the monastery, including three monks and a woman. The victims were from 30 to 60 years of age.

Many of the bodies showed evidence of torture prior to them being killed, these included a broken leg, burns and wounds from cigarettes and trauma from blunt and sharp objects.

The people were then shot in two groups at very short range. This was proved because the bullets had passed straight through the bodies and lodged in the monastery wall, the smell of gunpowder on the gunshot wounds and gunpowder burns on bodies.

Some of the victims had been shot by a gun put into their mouths. Other victims had obviously been gravely injured in the first hail of bullets and were either bayonetted or shot as they desperately tried to crawl away.

It is clear that the junta soldiers went round all the victims making sure they were dead shooting, bayonetting or beating to death those they thought were not yet dead.

The villagers were obviously the victims of a frenzied attack as all the corpses had at least three bullet wounds.

The bodies found at the monastery did not account for all of the 33 missing villagers. Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) fighters, who were the first people to enter Nam Nein Village after the junta forces left, also flew a drone over the junta camp on Dragon Pagoda Hill. From the drone they saw that there were a further seven bodies in the camp. Unfortunately, they could not establish if these were some of the missing villagers or junta soldiers.

As of the time of writing the fate of the missing eleven villagers is unknown. According to the NUG they may have been already killed or are being held by the junta, possibly to be used as hostages or human shields.

On the evening of 11 March, junta Telegram channels put up pictures of the slain villagers with eight air rifles placed on their bodies. The channels and a Myanmar junta press conference claimed that the villagers were Karenni people’s defence force (PDF) fighters who had been shot by junta soldiers at about 5:00 p.m.

According to the NUG, the time stamps on the junta Telegram photos said they had been taken at 8:50am and as the blood on the corpses was still wet they had not long been killed. By the time the KNDF found the corpses late in the afternoon all the blood had dried.

Most Pa-O people are devout Buddhists, whereas many Karenni people are Christian. According to the NUG, the junta is using the incident to try to set ethnic Pa-O people against ethnic Karenni people by implying that the Karenni PDF fighters killed the Buddhist monks.

The NUG also said that the junta was claiming the villagers were Karenni fighters to destroy the image and reputation of the KNDF and other Karenni defence forces.

The NUG was unable to establish whether any of the Pa-O PNO/PNA fighters, who helped the junta soldiers set up the Dragon Pagoda Hill camp, were involved in the massacre.

But, following the incident, the PNO put out a statement condemning the KNDF and its allies for committing the massacre and killing ethnic Pa-O people and Buddhist monks, according to Spring Revolution News.

Khun Myint Tun the chairman of the NUG-aligned Pa-O National Liberation Organisation (PNLO) said that the junta had been abusing Pa-O people and getting them to kill each other. He explained that after the PNO political party aligned with the junta, the junta forced its armed wing, the PNA to fight under the command of the junta army.

Bo Bo, a representative of the NUG’s Karenni Police Force said that the Pa-O fighters who were accompanying LIB 215 had not known that they were going to attack villages when they set off. Apparently, they were told that they would be providing security for a temple festival.

Khun Myint Tun called on Pa-O people to stop fighting each other and asked them to “keep the spirit of family and brotherhood.”

Dr Ye Zaw who inspected the bodies at the massacre site said such things were very hard for her to do as a doctor. She advised that junta soldiers “are psychotic killers,” and warned everyone to “please run away” if junta troops come to their villages so such incidents do not happen again.

The NUG has also warned “all civilians, particularly the elderly, women, children, and the disabled, to remain vigilant and evacuate prior to attacks.”

The investigation into what happened at Nam Nein Village is part of an NUG drive to compile information about all the crimes committed by the Myanmar military, including forwarding witnesses and material evidence to international prosecution organizations.

The NUG is also calling on the international community to provide vital communication technology, equipment, and early warning systems. It is also calling for the imposition of sanctions on the Myanmar military and the associates who supply jet fuel, weapons, dual- purpose technology, and other military equipment to the Myanmar army.

It also wants international legal bodies and the International Criminal Court to expand their current investigations to encompass all crimes committed in Myanmar in order to hold perpetrators to account. The NUG also urges governments to increase pressure on the Myanmar junta by establishing universal jurisdiction in order to try cases of crimes against humanity perpetrated by them.

According to the NUG, it has so far gathered evidence that the junta has massacred a total of 766 civilians in 64 mass killings of five or more innocent civilians between July 2021 and March 13, 2023. Those killed included 482 males and 78 females, with the remaining 206 dead bodies not being able to be classified by gender. Among the 559 unclassified dead bodies were 42 elders over the age of sixty and 62 children under the age of eighteen.