Myanmar villagers say army beheaded schoolteacher

Saw Tun Moe was a long-time educator who took part in antimilitary protests before taking charge of a school founded by country’s pro-democracy movement

The UN has documented 260 attacks on schools and education personnel since the army takeover, the UN Child Rights Committee said in June

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The decapitated body of a volunteer teacher in rural Myanmar was found on grotesque display at a village school after he was detained and killed by the military, witnesses said on Thursday. Photo: AP

Published: 2:14pm, 21 Oct 2022Updated: 2:29pm, 21 Oct 2022

The decapitated body of a volunteer teacher was left on grotesque display at a school in central Myanmar after he was detained and killed by the military, witnesses said on Thursday, marking the latest of many abuses alleged as the army tries to crush opposition to military rule.

According to witnesses’ descriptions and photos taken in Taung Myint village in the rural Magway region, the headless body of 46-year-old Saw Tun Moe was left on the ground in front of the school’s spiked gate and his head was impaled on top of it. The school, which has been closed since last year, was also burned.

Neither the military government nor the state-controlled media have released information about the teacher’s death.

Myanmar’s military has arrested tens of thousands of people and been blamed for the deaths of more than 2,300 civilians since seizing power last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The wall of a school structure is left standing after it was burned in Taung Myint village in the Magway region of Myanmar. Photo: AP

“We are appalled by reports that Burma’s military regime arrested, publicly mutilated, and beheaded a schoolteacher in Magway Region,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Twitter. “The regime’s brutal violence, including against educators, demands a strong response from the international community.” The United States officially refers to Myanmar by its old name, Burma, which was changed by a previous military government.