Aid workers in Myanmar's Kokang region near the northeastern border with China cremated large numbers of bodies of civilians in recent days, according to photographs shown to RFA from the scene.

The photos show voluntary workers in rubber gloves disposing of large numbers of dead bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands bound, and others with missing limbs.

The photos, many too graphic to publish, emerged amid accusations by Kokang rebel forces that the government is "massacring" unarmed civilians.

"In Kokang, these people were killed by the government," the ethnic Kokang man who showed the photos to RFA said on Wednesday. "They were civilians."

"The Youth League and the Red Cross cremated the bodies," the man said.

"They were tied up and then shot," he said. "It was very cruel; they were unarmed civilians."

He said the majority of killings took place in the town, which he declined to name because he feared for his own security, but some people had also been shot by the Myanmar army in mountain villages nearby.

"I know there were about 70 or 80 people killed [in the town]," the man said. "Taken with those killed in the mountains, it's about 100 people altogether."
As fighting wears on, civilians are continuing to flee the remote and rugged conflict zone in northeastern Shan state across the border into China's Yunnan province.

Myanmar's army is trying to hold the region against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) rebel forces under ethnic Chinese commander Peng Jiasheng, who is trying to retake the Kokang self-administered zone which it had controlled until 2009.

Government authorities were not immediately available to comment on the allegations that civilians have been killed in large numbers.

More here: Dozens of Civilian Bodies Cremated in Kokang; Rebels Blame Government