Skeletal Remains of Civilian Found After Junta Incursion in Myingyan, Mandalay — At Least 10 Beheaded Since Coup, 23 Villages Burned in April Alone

The skeletal remains of U Zaw Zaw, a 46-year-old civilian who went missing during a Myanmar junta troop incursion in October 2025, were discovered on May 7 beneath a mango tree in Kansint (North) Village, Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region, according to Mizzima reporting on May 11, 2026. Local residents confirmed that U Zaw Zaw's shirt, flip-flops, skeleton, and skull fragments were recovered in a scattered state consistent with his body having been left in the open. A second civilian, U Kyaw Kyaw (35), killed during the same October 2025 incursion, was found beheaded and burned inside the village. Residents reported that since the 2021 coup, approximately 10 men have been beheaded in Myingyan Township, and approximately 20 civilians have been killed during junta column incursions into the area. The broader arson campaign by junta forces has intensified in 2026: at least 23 villages in Myingyan and adjacent Taung Thar townships were burned during April alone, with some villages torched 'two or three times until homes were completely destroyed.' Displaced civilians are dying from heatstroke alongside ongoing artillery shelling and airstrikes. The killings and burnings are part of the SAC's documented counter-insurgency strategy of depopulating resistance-aligned villages in Sagaing-Mandalay Region. The pattern of beheading, burning, and abandonment of bodies constitutes extrajudicial execution and deliberate destruction of civilian property as prohibited under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.