Internet Access Amid Darkness and Lives Amid Threats You’re not connected Chapter 5 Internet Blackout and Human Rights violations It is unambiguous that the military junta acts inhumane violence including unlawful arrests, torture, torching villages, destroying and plundering public property, stealing sealing off civilian houses, raping and murders of women, and burning alive in a massacre against those resisting its cruelty under the cover of the internet blackout. Violent oppression and persecution against the civilians in stronghold areas of anti-junta resistance forces in 2022 under the cover of the internet blackout will be highlighted in this chapter. (5.1) Deliberate Killings of Innocent Civilians Our findings indicated that the brutal military staged inhumane killings of innocent civilians under the internet blackout in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Chin State, and Kayah State, stronghold areas of local PDFs and LDFs. Many innocent civilians have been murdered since January 2022, daily monitoring data and interview records also implied. On 19 January, the regime troops that entered Thit Seint Gyi village by boat set fire to six villagers from the age of 17 to 50 who had their hands tied. The six local men had been arrested and used as forced labour to guide the way before they were killed although all of the rest villagers escaped.30 On January 16, the regime soldiers raided Pa Lu Thar village in Kant Ba Lu township, arresting six villagers of Plu Thar village including U Maung Nyunt who had migrated from Ma Gyi village. Five villagers were belatedly released as their families had no ties with the PDFs. U Maung Nyunt, however, was beheaded somewhere in the forest following the five villagers' testimony claiming that he had a sister belonging to the PDFs. A young person in Sagaing Region said "There are so many crimes the terrorist military has been committing, in addition to the internet blackout, which included burning people alive with their hands tied up somewhere, I am not very sure about the location. I am not sure it was in Kyun Daw or Ohn Daw. But I know that village is situated on Mon Ywa – Pathein highway. Groups of villagers were handcuffed and burned alive. They also arbitrarily shot the people cultivating in the fields beside the highway. They were neither protesting nor resisting them. They just shot dead the farmers". Furthermore, the military arrested and killed anyone wearing sports trousers, accusing them of belonging to PDFs, in a manner of repeating its cruel tactics orchestrated in Rakhine State in recent years31 during an armed conflict against the Arakan Army. We had a chance to hear some residents telling the evident events, online, that military troops raided villages in Karenni State's Demoso township and Hpruso township to groundlessly arrest and torture civilians and children and heavy artillery fires killed civilians. 30 ဝက်လက်မှာ လက်ဖြန်ကကိ ်းန မ ဲ့ ်းရှု ိ ွဲ့ခ ာ်းရသူ ထဖခာက်ဦ်း အထလာင််းထတွဲ့. (2022 February 4). RFA Burmese. https://www.facebook.com/39218993127/posts/10161638658273128 31 AA အာ်းကစာ်းဝတ်လှုြ်ရှာ်းဟု တြ်မထတာ်ထဖြာဆိခ ု ျက် ရခိုငတ ် ိုင်း် ရင််းသာ်းမျာ်း ထဝဖန် (2019 March 28). The Irrawaddy. https://burma.irrawaddy.com/news/2019/03/28/187722.html 19