An incident occurred near the Thida St. bus stop in Tamwe Township, where two young men died due to the shooting by military junta forces in civilian clothes in the evening on December 8th.
Regarding the incident, MPA had the opportunity to question the eyewitnesses and received strong evidence to expose the war crimes committed by the military junta forces at a crowded stop.
The MPA has investigated and presented these events so that readers can learn about them.
“Evening Strike on Kyar Kwet Thit Street”
The incident happened at 6:30 p.m. on December 8th. About two hours before the incident, a group of young people held a protest against the military coup on Kyar Kwet Thit Street, Kyauk Myaung, at 4:00 p.m.—that street is two stops away from Thida St.
A group of young people protested by setting old tires on fire in the street for a couple of minutes and protesting that they shouted, “The uprising must succeed.”
The young protestors were likely not easy to hide their tracks in Kyauk Myaung, where non-locals often take the wrong way.
“The youths looked like they didn’t know the way well. They ran into the streets, but they finally came back on the Kyar Kwet Thit Streen. Then they left to the side of Thadi Pahtan Street,” said a woman who lives near Kyar Kwet Thit Street.
According to the residents who live along Kyar Kwet Thit Street, none of the young protestors were arrested. People along the street where the youths protested avoided in advance the danger of the junta troops rummaging along Kyar Kwet Thit Street and Ashoka Market.
Vendors had taken away their stalls earlier, and Kyar Kwet Thit Street was quietly left with the pungent smell of burning old tires.
“They (the protestors) ran through the Ashoka market. The vendors closed their shops and went back,” said a young resident in Kyauk Myaung.
“Slaughter at Thida Street Bus Stop”
The shooting on Thida Street happened at about 6:30 p.m. – about two hours after the Kyar Kwet Thit protest.
Many people saw the incident because it was happening during rush hour and it was a crowded place as well.
The eyewitness that MPA had the opportunity to question was the one who saw the shooting on Thida Street from the beginning to the end.
He saw that six junta troops in civilian clothes were arresting the four young men. Two young men have been caught, but the other two are trying to escape from their captors.
An eyewitness told MPA that a member of the Plainclothes, who was wearing a T-shirt, trousers and a bag, shot a young man trying to escape in his chest.
“I didn’t dare to look because they were shooting at that time. But I saw the boys who were there pushing the hands of the guys who were holding the guns. The two of them were struggling like that. They shot one of them in the chest,” he said.
It is reported that the appearance of military junta groups in civilian clothes is not significantly different from that of ordinary civilians. Eyewitnesses said that they were neatly dressed, and one of them was wearing a coat and shoes and looked like an affluent man.
The rest are also said to be like people who come back to work in long pants. Most of them have long hair, like ordinary civilians.
“The people who arrested them were probably thirty-five or thirty-six years old,” said the eyewitness.
The youths who were arrested and shot were in their twenties, and all four of them were tortured again after being arrested. The two youths who were shot were severely injured but were beaten and tortured by the military junta forces in civilian clothes.
It is reported that the hands of the two youths who were shot and the other two youths were tied behind their backs in a prone position by the junta forces.
“The boys who were shot were still alive. They were tied up with ropes, forced to face down on the ground, and beaten up. It was really brutal,” said a resident near the Thida St. stop.
While being tortured, people from its surrounding area could clearly hear the voice of the youth who had been shot, screaming in pain from the gunshot wounds and being tortured.
The junta forces did not give medical treatment to those who were near death due to their shooting and further tortured them.
“He didn’t die at once. He was punched again and again. A boy seemed to be in a lot of pain. I could hear him screaming. He was screaming in lots of pain,” said an eyewitness who lives on Thida Street.
According to MPA sources, the four arrested youths, including the two deceased, were taken away by the junta forces in a vehicle they usually use during patrolling.
“The Two Leftover Bombs”
The junta forces in civilian clothes found two bombs in the backpack of one of the four youths, and they initially placed the backpack in front of an apartment near the Thida Street bus stop.
After that, the street along Thida Street was closed around 8:00 p.m., and two bombs were moved on the street and covered with sandbags. They reportedly detonated the two bombs at 8:30 p.m.
“An informer of the junta forces or a thug”
At the beginning and end of the incident, there was a man in his forties working with the junta forces. He is said to be a man about five feet, ten inches tall, wearing a white T-shirt and a pulicat longyi.
Throughout the incident, the man was yelling and cursing at the people who were around that incident.
In addition, an eyewitness said that he was testifying that the arrested youths were the ones they were looking for when the junta forces were questioning the youths.
“A tan-skinned man in a pulicat longyi was swearing at everyone he saw, and he was telling them (junta forces) that the arrested were the right ones they wanted,” said the witness.
“The whole neighborhood in chaotic”
Before the junta forces closed the street and detonated the bombs, they pulled the bell cords of the apartment buildings on both sides of the bus stop and shouted at the people to come down. The people living in apartments were forced to move parked vehicles because they were going to detonate the bombs.
In addition, a large number of forces were deployed in the vicinity of the Thida Street stop.
“They come with three military vehicles and four small cars. The number of forces was quite large. They were also positioned in the back alleys,” said an eyewitness.
The junta forces remained in the vicinity of Thida St. until 11:00 p.m., and the owner of the fruit shop and women employees of the City Express Store near the scene were not allowed to return until they returned.
In addition, residents saw that the junta forces took water bottles, cold drinks, and snacks from the City Express store.
“They (junta forces) entered the City Express store to take some palm jam (Burmese palm jam). There is only one female employee at the shop. They take things in occasionally. I don’t know if they pay or not,” said a local witness.
“They returned after hiding the evidence.”
It is reported that the junta forces returned from the Thida Steet stop at around 11:00 p.m., and before they returned, they covered the blood stains of the two youths with sand.
The male shopkeeper of the nearby fruit shop was forced to cover it.
“I saw the fruit shop owner being forced to cover up the blood stains with the remaining sand when the bomb went off,” said an eyewitness.
The morning after the Thida Street slaughter, blood stains, which were covered in sand, still remained in the places where the incident took place.
However, the pieces of bombs they detonated were still scattered along the road.