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Sep 2, 2022 11 tweets 8 min read Read on X
#WhatsHappeninglnMyanmar
🔴How do we verify fire claims?
🟡Geolocation Walkthrough

On 29 August 2022, SGG News reported a fire in Taung Myo village, Sagaing.

The disturbing images led MW investigators to try to verify the report, starting with geolocating the footage.

THREAD👇 Image
#OSINT #Geolocation

After initial assessment, it was possible to determine that several images showed the same location but were taken from a different angle.

When different images contain overlapping information, that can be a good place to start the geolocation work. ImageImageImageImage
Investigators often rely on satellite imagery for geolocation.

Analysis of the roofs and roads in the images can yield valuable information. Roof aspects (size, colour, shape) can be compared with road layout to make a unique pattern MW can then look for in satellite imagery. Image
These images show a few key details.

A destroyed red-roofed building can be seen in both of the images below, showing a partially-burnt, blue-roofed building to the left. There are burnt structures in front of the buildings and a split in the road next to them. ImageImage
Looking for this set of details in satellite imagery of the village, it is possible to see a similar pattern at the center of the village. (22.081291, 95.666769). Image
#Myanmar #OSINT

Marking the similarities between ground photos and satellite imagery is vital in proving a geolocation claim.

The red-roofed building is marked with red, the blue roofed building is marked with blue and the road-split is marked in purple. ImageImageImage
MW must compare multiple details from the ground images to make sure they match the satellite imagery.

The layout / roofs of the 2 buildings behind the red-roofed building appear to match (orange box).

The building to the left of the fork in the road (blue box) also matches. ImageImage
Using another image, it is possible to see a uniquely-shaped blue roof in the back (marked green) and a big tree to its left (grey green).

Both of them are visible in the satellite imagery too. Image
The same process can be used to try to geolocate further images from Taung Myo village or other incidents across Myanmar. ImageImageImageImage
Myanmar Witness geolocated several images from Taung Myo village, showing damage to more than 20 structures.

Some of these buildings were partially destroyed, others were burned to ashes. Image
#OSINT #Myanmar

To request an invite to the next Myanmar Witness OSINT skills training session with an introduction to geolocation, please email

👉social@myanmarwitness.org ImageImageImageImage

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More from @MyanmarWitness

Sep 8, 2022
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
#MWFires

Fires continue to be used to destroy civilian property and entire villages in Myanmar, with devastating consequences for those that live there.

Below are 17 SERIOUS FIRE INCIDENTS added to the MW Fire Map in August 2022.

(THREAD) 👇
🚨Village burnt following clashes
☑️ Kale, Sagaing
☑️ 23.09851, 94.01889
☑️ 05 Aug 2022

firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#t:adv;d:2…

facebook.com/khitthitnews/v…

#MWFires #Myanmar
🚨Thantlang burning again
☑️ Hakha, Chin
☑️ 22.6922, 93.42308
☑️ 06 Aug 2022

firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#t:adv;d:2…

DM with links to footage if safe to do so.
#MWFires #Myanmar
Read 19 tweets
Aug 29, 2022
🔴 Lay Kay Kaw
🟡 Report out soon

Lay Kay Kaw (လေးကေ့ကော်) in Kayin (ကရင်) State, once designated a ‘town of peace’, has been the site of violent clashes between the Myanmar military and the Karen National Union (KNU), since December 2021.

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
THREAD 👇 ImageImage
Instead of providing a site of refuge to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returning refugees and KNU families, fighting in Lay Kay Kaw (လေးကေ့ကော်) has forced many residents to flee for their lives. Image
MW have published the first in a series of reports that document events in the region. It provides a detailed chronological reconstruction of the clashes between the military and oppositional forces between 13 and 28 December 2021. Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 24, 2022
🚨BURNT BODIES
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

17 claims involving the burning of victims or their bodies in Myanmar (July 2021 - August 2022).

This list is not exhaustive and includes some credible but unverified claims where further evidence is required.

A thread👇TW//GRAPHIC
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
🔴 Burnt Bodies in Myanmar
🟡 Claim 1/17
Unverified media report

AUNGMYAYTHAZAN, Mandalay
27 March 2021

“Armed forces burnt a Mandalay resident alive”
myanmar-now.org/en/news/help-m…

Please upload evidence
myanmarwitness.org/upload-evidence
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
🔴 Burnt Bodies in Myanmar
🟡 Claim 2/17
✅ Geolocated images

KANI, Sagaing
28 JULY 2021

“The 11 men were massacred and set on fire”
Letter from Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun
myanmarmissionnewyork.org/post/letter-fr…

“Multiple bodies”
Read 19 tweets
Aug 17, 2022
🚨Vehicle Burning
...can seem insignificant when compared to other reports of #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar.

But vehicles
+ give freedom of movement
+ transport goods
+ often most-valued possession

When they are burnt it often reveals important clues to what happened.

Thread👇 Image
🚨Burnt vehicles
☑️Yinmarbin, Sagaing
☑️22.073197, 94.789316
☑️14 August 2022

A truck and motorcycles were burnt, following reports of a massacre in Yin Paung Taing village.

myanmar-now.org/en/news/the-sm… ImageImageImageImage
🚨Burnt truck
☑️Pwintbyu, Magway
☑️20.317129, 94.488443
☑️22 June 2022

We geolocated an image of a burnt truck, following reports of military activity in Pwintbyu. Image
Read 11 tweets
Feb 11, 2022
🔥 Documenting fires in Myanmar
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

Today we look at methods for documenting the burning of civilian structures.

There are several methods we can use to verify that a fire occurred, and then to map that damage.

#OSINT #THREAD

1/35 👇
Following reports of a village being burnt, the first thing that we try to do is verify the attack. For that we look for thermal anomaly detections from several satellites that orbit the globe twice per day. These are the VIIRS and Aqua/Terra Earth Observation satellites.
The data from these satellites regularly gets uploaded to a NASA website called FIRMS:
firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@…

There are a lot of fires (mostly burning agricultural fields after harvest), but if you have specific info it is very useful to verify.
Read 35 tweets
Feb 10, 2022
မိမိဖုန်းကိုလုံခြုံအောင်ဘယ်လိုထားမလဲ……

ဖုန်းလုံခြုံရေးအတွက် အရေးကြီးတဲ့ အချက်များကို မျှဝေပေးချင်ပါတယ် 👇👇👇

1/7

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
#Myanmar #securityexplained
#MyanmarWitness
#ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်လုံခြုံရေး
#မိုဘိုင်းဖုန်းလုံခြုံရေး
Read 7 tweets

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