A Myanmar soldier, Ko Ko Aung, has confessed to heinous crimes, including gang rape and murder during a raid in Rakhine State's Minbya Township on January 17. The confession, captured on video by the Arakan Army, details the shocking events that unfolded during the raid.

The 33-year-old victim, the last casualty in the village, initially survived a bullet before her throat was slit. Ko Ko Aung, a member of the junta's Light Infantry Battalion 205, admits to being one of the five soldiers involved in raping the woman after killing an elderly man and her mother.

The video released by the Arakan Army presents Ko Ko Aung reenacting the murders and gang rape. According to his account, the unit arrived in Minbya Township by boat, marching to Nga Tan Pyin village. An elderly man was the first victim, killed on the commander's orders.

The rape victim and her 64-year-old mother were next to be targeted as almost all other villagers had fled. The elderly woman was shot twice in the head by Sergeant Kyaw Myo Oo with approval from Captain Nay Lin Kyaw. After killing her mother, the daughter was dragged under her stilted home and raped by Sergeant Kyaw Myo Oo and three other soldiers, including Ko Ko Aung.

In the video, Ko Ko Aung reveals that he shot the victim in the chest after the rape, but she survived. Lance Corporal Thura Naing then slit her throat. Following these horrific acts, the unit faced an attack by Arakan Army troops, and Ko Ko Aung was the sole survivor among the five soldiers involved in the rape.

Nay Lin Kyaw, the captain who ordered the crimes, later succumbed to burns sustained in a clash with Arakan Army troops. The victims in Nga Tan Pyin Village were identified, including the mother and daughter, along with U Maung Saw Thein, 62, who was also killed.

In another disturbing incident in Mrauk-U Township, junta soldiers massacred seven Rakhine civilian detainees, including a former journalist and a rapper, at a military headquarters in January. In late February, junta battalion commander Major Thein Htike Soe, Mrauk-U District Police Chief Khin Maung Soe, and army captain Arkar Myint confessed to their involvement in the execution after being detained by the Arakan Army. 

BOB Post