ND Burma

Human Rights Situation weekly update (May 8 to 14, 2024)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from May 8 to 14, 2024

Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Tanintharyi Region, Rakhine State, Kachin State, Shan State, and Kayin State from May 8th to 14th. 20 civilians died and over 50 were injured by the airstrike and dropping bombs in Saw Township, Magway Region, and Tabayin Township, Sagaing Region. Military Junta committed a massacre which involved shooting and killing over 30 local civilians from Lathtuttaw Village in Myinmu Township, Sagaing Region. Military Junta Troop arrested men from Magway Region, Ayeyarwady Region, and Bago Region for 2nd Batch of Military Service and also arrested 7 youths who denied Military Service and their relatives as hostages.

Over 80 civilians died, and over 120 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. A civilian also died by the landmines of the Military Junta.

ND Burma

Myanmar junta forces kill 15 villagers after clashes with Rakhine State insurgents

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Aerial bombings and gunfire on three villages destroyed homes and cars, and critically wounded many.

Myanmar junta forces battling ethnic minority insurgents in three townships in the west have killed 15 people in strikes on villages, residents told Radio Free Asia Wednesday.

The junta artillery fire and airstrikes on Tuesday also wounded 16 people in Rakhine State’s Thandwe, Kyauktaw and Maungdaw townships, they said.  Junta troops frequently retaliate against civilians across Rakhine State following offensives by the Arakan Army ethnic minority insurgent group, witnesses  say.

Residents told Radio Free Asia that 12 people were killed in an attack and another person was critically wounded when troops shelled Thandwe township’s Lin Thi village on Tuesday evening. Seven people were killed in the artillery strikes while five died in the hospital, according to Lin Thi residents.

Three people were killed in junta airstrikes further to the north on Tuesday, near the border with Bangladesh, residents there said.

RFA telephoned Rakhine State’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, but he did not respond. The military junta and the Arakan Army have been fighting in Rakhine State since a year-long ceasefire ended in November.

More than 200 civilians have been killed and nearly 600 have been wounded by air raids, land mines and small and heavy weapons in the six months since November, according to data compiled by RFA from accounts from residents and the Arakan Army.

The junta-controlled Myanma Alinn Daily newspaper reported on Monday that 60 civilians had been killed and 113 wounded by artillery fired into villages by the Arakan Army.

A witness who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told RFA that junta forces fired heavy weapons from a junta camp strategically positioned on a hill on Tuesday.

“When fighting erupted with the Arakan Army, junta troops in the Bardan Hill camp shelled the village,” he said. “A family of five died in the first round, two more were killed in the second and the rest of the injured were brought to the hospital by boat. Three more died in the hospital last night and two died this morning.”

Most villagers fled to safety, but shelling could still be heard on Wednesday morning, he added.

Ngapali beach, a tourist town in Thandwe, has faced increasing economic difficulties as the conflict has escalated in the region, scaring off visitors.

Junta targeting hospital and school

To Thandwe’s north, Arakan Army troops captured Kyauktaw township’s regional junta headquarters in February. The military has responded with targeted attacks on civilians, residents say. The junta’s air force bombed a hospital and school on Tuesday in Wea Gyi Daunt village, injuring as many as 20 patients and healthcare workers. 

A villager who declined to be identified for security reasons told RFA that unlike in Thandwe, where fighting instigated the attack, three bombs were dropped apparently for no reason, hitting only civilians.

“They dropped a bomb last night. The hospital was also destroyed. Two health workers were injured initially, then seven more were injured,” he said. 

The Arakan Army reported that as many as 20 patients and healthcare workers were wounded, five of them critically. Some victims had died from their wounds, the insurgents said, but did not say how many.

Junta troops also bombed the Kyauktaw-based Infantry Battalion 374 base, which the Arakan Army recently captured, residents said.

Junta airtrikes further north, near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, killed three civilians and wounded six in Kin Chaung village in Maungdaw township, residents said. One man who witnessed the attack said two jets bombed the area even though there had been no clashes.

“Two elderly women and a man died. Six people were injured. Six or seven cars were destroyed,” said the man, who declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information. “A religious building in a monastery compound collapsed and two houses burned down.”

Rakhine State is one of several Mynamar regions where fighters trying to end military rule have made advances recently against the junta that seized power from an elected government in early 2021.

RFA News

ND Burma

Widespread Myanmar water shortage kills scores of people

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Nearly 50 villages in the west are impacted by this year’s intense hot season, residents said.

Nearly 50 villages in western Myanmar are facing shortages of water, residents told RFA on Tuesday, after the hot season brought record high temperatures across the region.

Ponds and small lakes across Rakhine State are drying up, leaving residents with limited water for drinking and cooking. The United Nations has warned that tens of thousands of people displaced by conflict face the risk of disease as a result of the lack of water.

Villages across Ponnagyun township have faced severe drought since April, as the hot season reached its most intense period, said one resident, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals. “There are two or three ponds in the village. But this year, the daytime temperature rose so high that the ponds went dry,” he said. “Some people don’t even bathe regularly and sometimes even lack drinking water. There are some aid groups donating water but it’s not enough because most of the villages need it.”

Ponnagyun faces a water shortage every year but this year has been the worst, he said, adding that some residents were suffering from diarrhea from drinking dirty  water.

Nearly a quarter of the households in Ah Htet Myat Hle village’s camp for internally displaced people are facing a water shortage, a camp administrator said. Water-borne illnesses killed three people in the camp in April, with similar symptoms killing nearly 80 in other  camps across the state in the same month, aid workers have said.

Camp official Aung Myint told RFA that hundreds of people were facing various  symptoms from drinking unclean water.

“We are already having a lot of trouble in the camp. Hundreds of people are suffering from diarrhea. My child is also suffering from it, too,” he said. “Three people from the camp have died from disease. It is caused mainly due to unclean drinking water, rising heat and the toilets.”

Mass displacement and disruption in Rakhine State from fighting between junta forces and ethnic minority insurgents from the Arakan Army, has forced thousands of people from their homes and deprived them of their livelihoods. Those forced into camps, mostly members of the persecuted Rohingya minority, lack access to doctors and sanitation. 

RFA News

ND Burma

Fifteen killed in regime airstrike on Magway’s Saw Township

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Residents in Magway Region’s Saw Township said that at least 15 civilians, including children and a monk, were killed and 27 others were injured in an airstrike carried out by the military on a monastery in Ahkyipanpalun village of Kyauktu town on Thursday. 

“The monastery was engulfed in flames. They unleashed a barrage of 500-pound explosives and incendiary bombs. The number of injured remains uncertain as patients have been transported to various hospitals. Efforts are underway to find those unaccounted for,” an Ahkyipanpalun resident told DVB.

Rescue workers recovered the bodies of the victims following the airstrike. The injured are reportedly suffering from severe burns. Witnesses stated that the attack occurred on May 9 – the same day that the People’s Defense Force (PDF), public administration officials, and residents held a meeting at the monastery. 

Neither the military regime nor the PDF have made public statements about the airstrike on the monastery in Ahkipanpalun village. An airstrike on Pazigyi village of Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region, during a local administration meeting killed over 160 people on April 11, 2023. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has documented at least 4,981 people killed by pro-military forces since the 2021 coup.

DVB News

ND Burma

Human Rights Situation weekly update (May 1 to 7, 2024)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from May 1 to 7, 2024

Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Tanintharyi Region, Bago Region, Kachin State, and Rakhine State from May 1st to 7th. The Military Junta prohibited and blocked working permission in foreign countries on May 1st. The Military’s Pyusawhtee troop killed and wasted 4 civilians in Bago Region. Men were arrested for the Military Service in the Sagaing Region and Magway Region

7 civilians died and over 50 were arrested by the arresting and killing of Military Junta within a week. A civilian died and 2 were injured by the land mines of the Military Junta Troop.

ND Burma

‘Apocalypse’: Myanmar Doctor Describes Deadly Junta Airstrike on Mindat Hospital

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“Apocalypse” is how a doctor has described the scene when Myanmar junta fighter jets used four 500lb bombs to destroy a hospital in Chin State’s Mindat Township on April 25, killing five patients and injuring 15 others.

Dr. Shao* was among anti-regime medics who helped run Wun Ma Thuu Hospital, which provided free treatment to civilians injured in junta attacks.

Residents of Mindat and neighboring Chin State townships, as well as nearby areas of Magwe and Sagaing regions, relied on the hospital before it was targeted by the junta.

Fighter jets intentionally bombed the hospital despite an absence of clashes in the township. Three days after the first airstrike, warplanes returned to bomb the hospital’s remaining buildings on April 28.

Intentionally attacking medical services during conflict is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law. A total of 343 hospitals and clinics have been destroyed in junta attacks, killing 104 health workers, according to an April 28 statement issued by the parallel civilian National Unity Government.

Dr. Shao formerly worked at Mandalay Public Hospital in the country’s second city but joined the  CDM (civil disobedience movement) two days after the military ousted the elected civilian government on Feb. 1, 2021. Fleeing an arrest warrant issued because he refused to work for the junta, he took up his post at Wun Ma Thuu Hospital on Aug. 6, 2021.

On April 25, he was settling down after a routine day in the operating theater.

“That day, 25.04.2024, started like any other day. We performed surgery on a patient at 4.30 pm and finished the operation around 6 pm. After the surgery, my colleague and I walked back to our place which was a block away from the hospital down the hill. I was supposed to attend an online class, but I didn’t. I cooked our traditional fish-based rice noodle soup for tomorrow’s breakfast for all of us. Then I went to my room and watched a YouTube video to be relaxed.”

Flames engulf the hospital after the bombing raid. / CDF Mindat

He describes what happened next as “version two of the apocalypse”.

“I was chatting with my colleagues at about 7.50 pm when I heard a noise that I suddenly realized came from a jet fighter or a helicopter. Before I could warn my friends that we might be under air attack, a loud blast and red flash knocked me to the floor and the ceiling began to cave in. It was an airstrike for sure and my impulse was to run to the bomb shelter.”

However, he remembered that the military often strafes people with machine-gun fire after an airstrike.

“So I continued to crouch down in the room. As expected, I heard the sound of a machine gun being fired.

“After about a minute, I ran to the bomb shelter and yelled for everyone to get in. Two minutes after I got inside, the second bomb detonated. This time it was closer, shaking the ground so that the edges of the bomb shelter started to fall. We later found out that the blasts were so intense because they came from two bombs being dropped twice.”

The impact also caused oil barrels to explode, which started a fire.

“I was in a frenzy and I didn’t know what to do. Our house was on fire and we couldn’t retrieve any belongings from the blaze.”

Once the bombing raid was over, Dr. Shao and his colleagues rushed out to check the damage.

“We went to the hospital and found everything destroyed: the ceiling had collapsed, the floors were strewn with broken glass, and the building was on fire. We salvaged what we could from the operating theater, including instruments, medicines, and other stuff that was still in good condition. We tried to carry out as much stuff we could, but the fire became so strong that we had to give up at around 11.30 pm.”

Hospital staff also raced to save bedridden patients from the flames and smoke that were engulfing the wards.

“We wrapped immobile patients in soaking blankets and carried them out of the burning hospital.

My friend, nurses and I checked the patients to see who needed urgent medical attention.

The stable patients were then sent to houses in the village. We also transformed a village house into a makeshift hospital and temporary operating theater.”

Medical equipment and supplies lie amid the ruins of the bombed-out hospital. / Yaw Mang

Two patients were killed immediately in the bombing while another three succumbed to their injuries in the following days. Over 30 more were injured, 14 when the hospital ceiling collapsed from the blast impact.

“I was simultaneously furious and grief-stricken that patients who had come to be treated for their injuries had suffered worse injuries and even death here due to the inhumane action of intentionally dropping bombs on the hospital.”

Having rescued patients and equipment from the burning hospital, Dr, Shao and his team now had another urgent task at hand: saving the lives of people caught in the bombing.

“At 5.30 am, we needed to operate on a patient who had a stick penetrating his abdomen at the civilian house in the village. We had to arrange a row of chairs to form a makeshift operating table.”

An hour later, exhausted after completing the operation successfully, he was lying down for a nap when the warning of another air raid sounded. He rushed to the bomb shelter but only managed to get an hour’s rest due to the crowded conditions.

“Throughout the whole day, we were in and out of the bomb shelter due to a jet fighter and military airplane hovering above our heads.”

After undergoing surgery in the makeshift hospital, patients were sent back to houses in the village.

The next day, patients who could be moved were evacuated to neighboring villages over concern of more bombing raids.

“I didn’t have time to cry because I was shaking with fear,” Dr. Shao said. “That’s why I describe what I experienced on that day as a second apocalypse.”

Dr. Shao is a pseudonym used at the request of the doctor concerned for his security.

Irrawaddy News