Myanmar Junta Planes Bomb Village Sheltering Displaced Karenni Civilians

Myanmar regime forces on Sunday used aircraft to bomb Lo Bar Kho Village in Demoso Township, Kayah State, where around 3,000 internally displaced civilians (IDPs) are sheltering.

Junta airplanes dropped two bombs on the village on Sunday morning, with one falling near a clinic opened for the refugees, destroying a few buildings nearby.

A resistance fighter from Kayah State said the village is far from the frontlines of the recent fighting in the state.

“They cannot attack Lo Bar Kho Village with artillery because it is out of range, on the border of Shan and Kayah states. So, they used airplanes to drop bombs and send a warning to the refugees that there is no safe place for them within the state.”

Most of the displaced people there fled Nan Mal Kone, Pekon and Demoso. They headed for Lo Bar Kho Village thinking it would be the safest place for them.

A majority of Kayah State’s population of 200,000 people have been displaced by fighting, with clashes taking place almost daily.

A senior staffer at the Karenni State Refugee Supporting Network said the displaced people don’t dare use tarpaulin sheets as roofs for their makeshift dwellings, because junta military airplanes attack when they see blue tarpaulin roofs.

“The refugees had to run without taking any of their belongings. They didn’t dare to take tarpaulin shelters. The refugees are scattering. Some have gone into the forest,” he said. “They are in despair. They don’t know where is a safe place for them now,” he added.

The displaced people are also facing a shortage of food. The network has asked international organizations to provide emergency food supplies for the Karenni IDPs.

On Jan. 17, the junta’s indiscriminate aerial bombing killed three civilians including a 7-year-old girl in a displacement camp in Kayah State’s Hpruso Township.

Irrawaddy News

Myanmar junta troops said to have held preschoolers as ‘human shields’ after raid

A military spokesman said children were detained for their protection during clashes with opposition forces.

Anti-junta paramilitaries on Monday freed some 100 preschool children and other residents they say Myanmar’s military had detained as “human shields” against a counterattack in a village in embattled Sagaing region’s Yinmabin township.

Residents of Yinmabin’s Chin Pone village told RFA’s Myanmar Service that they were attending a funeral service on Saturday when two military helicopters attacked a training camp for the prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group located just west of the settlement.

According to one witness, around 40 troops descended from two additional helicopters and arrested anyone who was unable to flee the area, including some 100 preschoolers and other villagers.

After holding the village for two days, troops left Chin Pone at around 10 a.m. on Monday — but not before torching four homes and several motorbikes.

A PDF fighter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that when members of his group entered Chin Pone to free the detainees from the village school on Monday, they discovered more than a dozen bodies in the building.

“One of my brothers found them in the school when he went in to retrieve the children,” he said.

“He said there were four bodies in one place, two more in another place and a seventh in a third place. Additionally, there were six bodies, including a young woman’s, at the entrance of the preschool on the south side of the monastery. So, a total of 13 bodies were found. Two of them were from our village.”

The children and nine teachers and villagers were taken to a safe place by residents after the army left the area, the PDF fighter said.

Residents told RFA that while troops are no longer in the village, they were unable to retrieve the bodies because of the threat of booby-traps.

They said the military vacated Chin Pone at approximately the same time that helicopters carried out another attack on the nearby Yinmabin villages of Thabyay Aye, Kyauk Pyut and Wah Sein Taung.

“The billowing smoke can be seen from here and there is still a helicopter in the area,” said one resident, who was observing Chin Pone from a village about one mile away. “All of our stashed valuables were said to be taken away and the houses where [troops] found weapons were destroyed.”

Sources told RFA that more than 5,000 residents from some 10 surrounding villages fled their homes during the Saturday raid on Chin Pone.

‘Training terrorists’

A pro-junta media outlet reported that fighting broke out Chin Pone on Saturday after the military carried out checks on a local monastery and school following a tip that PDF units were hiding there. It said that troops killed six male and female PDF members in a firefight and seized weapons, ammunition and dozens of vehicles.

Junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun confirmed the incident, telling RFA that people in the village had been “training PDF terrorists.”

“During the raid, the security forces seized some of them along with eight homemade firearms, four homemade mortars, some mortar shells and homemade mines, he said. “The detainees are now being questioned in accordance with the law. I don’t know the numbers.

“They were holding training sessions in schools and monasteries. Some of them were killed in the clash and some of our troops were injured. The preschool children were kept in the school because the terrorists were fleeing in all directions.”

However, Ko Khant, a member of the North Yamar PDF, said the army’s detention of the children and other residents of Chin Pone village amounted to using civilians as “human shields.”

“The main reason that they were using the children as human shields is because they were afraid of being attacked,” he said.

Ko Khant said he believes that the troops detained people in the village with the intention of using them as protection because “not all of the children were trapped in the confusion” of the initial raid.

“The soldiers took them as hostages because they did not have enough strength to defend themselves,” he said. “If they became encircled and attacked by area paramilitaries, they would have suffered heavy casualties.”

Yinmabin township has been a stronghold of armed resistance to junta rule since the military seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected National League for Democracy party in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. In the nearly 13 months since, junta forces have arrested nearly 9,400 civilians and killed 1,585 – mostly during peaceful anti-coup protests.

Authorities shut down internet access in Yinmabin six months ago in a bid to disrupt PDF communications.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

RFA News

Junta soldiers burn hundreds of homes and murder civilians during rampages in upper Myanmar

One of those killed was found with severe injuries on his body, suggesting he had been tortured, a local resident said 

Junta soldiers killed civilians, burned hundreds of homes, and destroyed food stocks during attacks on villages in Sagaing Region last week, locals said.

Troops entered Kan Lay Kone village in Taze Township on February 21 and abducted 43-year-old Soe Moe, who they then took to another village five miles away called Thapyay Inn, according to the locals.

He was found dead on Thursday with his hands tied behind his back near a stream in Thapyay Inn. “We think he was tortured for three whole days,” said one local man. “There were a great number of injuries on the body.”

It was unclear why he was targeted, the man added. “He was on his way to check on his relatives when he ran into the junta column,” he said.

Elsewhere in Taze, Nay Win Htun, 40, was shot dead in his village of southern Chaung Sone on Friday. Locals said the soldiers threw the man’s body into his house, which they then set fire to.

Another junta column entered Taze from Kanbalu Township and raided the villages of Kan Phyu, Wat Toe and Thar Khaung Gyi on February 24, according to Taze locals.

“They’ve been terrorising those villages for three days,” said one resident. “They also torched houses that were not destroyed by artillery shells. And they killed and ate the cows in the village. They’re just doing whatever they want.”

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The body of Soe Moe who was abducted by junta soldiers in Kan Lay Kone village was found at a roadside on February 24 (Supplied)The body of Soe Moe who was abducted by junta soldiers in Kan Lay Kone village was found at a roadside on February 24 (Supplied)

In Shwebo Township on Friday, 50 soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militiamen burned around 400 homes in the village of Hna Ma Sar Yit. Locals later found the bodies of three residents and said three others, who were all elderly, had gone missing.

“They started firing shots at around 6am,” said one local man, adding that the attackers used both heavy and light weapons.

Yin San Aye, 33, and U Thein, 55, were later found dead with bullet wounds, while 77-year-old Khin Than died in a fire in her home, he added.

Tons of rice were also destroyed in the fires. This is the fourth time the village of some 600 houses had been attacked by the junta’s forces.

“I don’t even have the words to describe what we’re feeling right now. I would understand if we were armed and posed a threat to them. We weren’t armed in any way. The villagers were fleeing but they just kept on firing. It’s just too cruel,” the local man said.

The Pyu Saw Htee members who joined the soldiers came from Thee Lone, Pan Yan and Myin See villages, he added.

A local woman told Myanmar Now her house was burned after she fled the village with her eldery parents.

“Once all of us had fled, they started torching the houses in the southern part of the village until they reached the middle. And then my house was torched. We could also hear them yelling that they would kill anyone they saw,” she said.

Residents say many in the village have taken part in anti-coup protests.

Local news reports said thousands have been displaced by military raids on the Shwebo villages of Ywar Soe, Pauk Chaing and Seikkhun.

Soldiers burned another 40 houses with shelling in Shwebo’s Ngarpi Oe village on Thursday and killed a 25-year-old man, villagers and a local resistance force leader there said.

The attack came as retaliation after a Pyu Saw Htee leader named Myint Than was killed along with another man named La Yaung. Junta forces in the nearby village of Gway Pin Kone opened at Ngarpi Oe using artillery.

“We didn’t have enough time to do anything at all,” said the resistance force leader.  “The battle was totally unexpected. They started to fire artillery shells right after the Pyu Saw Htee leader got killed.”

“We don’t have enough equipment or weapons to fight back. They continuously used heavy artillery shells. It was really overkill, considering the civilians were unarmed,” he added.

The 25-year-old man was shot dead while fleeing the attack on his motorcycle at around 9pm, he added. The fires raged until Friday morning.

“They wouldn’t have needed to use this much force even if it had been an actual battle. There were only 20 seconds between each heavy artillery shell. We couldn’t do anything but retreat,” the resistance fighter added.

The village sits along the Shwebo-Kyaukmyaung road near the entrance to the UNESCO world heritage site of Hanlin, which contains archeological ruins from the Pyu era.

“The place where the shells fell is only 15,000 feet away from the Han Lin city gate. The shell essentially fell in preserved territory,” said a 60-year-old villager named Lin.

Another man, 40, said a two-storey house, a barn and 410 litres of rice grain were also destroyed by the shells, while six cows were killed.

Over 5,000 people have fled Ngarpi Oe and the nearby villages of Gyoegyar, Kan Gyi Taw, Ywar Thit Kone and Thea Kyun because of the attacks, according to locals.

Myanmar Now News

Weekly Update Human Rights Satiation in Myanmar 21 February – 27 February 2022

Clear evidence of the power of the Spring Revolution can be seen in the momentum of ongoing protest and campaigning efforts. Another nationwide protest named the ‘Six Twos Revolution’ was organized to mark the anniversary of the 2021 ‘Five-Twos Revolution,’ held last year as part of a nationwide general strike. Protesters proudly held posters and signage reiterating calls for an end to the Myanmar junta’s crimes against humanity. Three finger salutes were seen as another act of defiance while individuals donned flowers in their hair and the traditional thanaka on their faces. The banging of pots and pans to draw out evil spirits, a popular non-violent form of protest adopted over the last year, was also encouraged.  Political prisoners detained in various jails across Myanmar also found ways to participate by observing five minutes of silence. People also distributed anti-junta fliers and hung banners.

The peaceful demonstration was one where all involved demonstrated their rights to protest. And yet – the military junta unjustly violently cracked down. Peaceful protesters were arrested, including dozens in Tanintharyi and Sagaing regions.

Security forces, wearing riot gear, ruthlessly ambushed 34 young people celebrating a birthday party who they alleged were involved in the protest. ND-Burma member, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, reported on the case and indicated that no arrest warrants were shown in conjunction with the arrests. They were detained at Laung Lone Township police station.

In Monya, Sagaing region, two women on a motorcycle handing out anti-junta materials were rammed by a car causing them both to fall. One of them was two months pregnant and miscarried as a result.

These injustices against innocent civilians once again speak to the cruelty which the Myanmar junta has never hid behind. Accountability for these crimes and more is long overdue, as is the protection for internationally recognized rights and freedoms.

KAREN STATEThe Karen National Union (KNU)  is strengthening its response to the Myanmar junta as bases of the terrorist regime increased from 28 to 32 with four additional battalions. In Brigade 5 areas, there are approximately 4000 Myanmar Army soldiers. In January 2022 alone, there were over 320 clashes between the Karen National Liberation army and joint forces of the junta and Border Guard Forces (BGF).

Artillery shells were fired in Nagar-Taung Hill, three kilometers from Three Pagodas Pass Township which injured at least three innocent civilians on 22 February 2022. A young woman, a resident of Makatta and two day laborers, Nai Thit and Saw Pha Doh were injured when the shells landed. The firing forced over 120 households to flee from their villages and take refuge in Brigade four of KNU territories.

The KNU has warned the junta and the BGF to retreat from Karen areas on multiple occasions to ensure their control is eliminated.

Meanwhile, approximately 20 internally displaced people sheltering in Lay Kay Kaw recently tested positive for COVID-19. Health officials say it is difficult to isolate patients due to crammed camp conditions. This is yet another unfair burden placed on innocent people by the junta.

KARENNI (KAYAH) STATE

Airstrikes were once again deployed by the Myanmar junta in Karenni (Kayah) State in the town of Moebye following intensified clashes between People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and the regime. On 16 February, Myanmar Army forces entered several villages near Moebye and air and ground strikes followed on a daily basis. Karenni based PDFs have been reporting that they’ve killed more than two dozen junta soldiers during the clashes. Civilians caught in the crossfire of the shelling have said the impacts of the blasts ‘shake the walls’ of their homes. Thousands have fled for safety but have faced challenges as they try to escape including multiple checkpoints and extortion by the soldiers.

The onslaught of fighting has left the Karenni people fearful for their futures. Since the beginning of the year, IDP camps have been struck by air attacks and forced thousands to flee. Traumatized survivors have lost loved ones and witnessed the harrowing impacts and brutality of civil war up close.

More airstrikes targeting local people by the Myanmar junta led to three civilians killed, and five injured one the evening of 23 February.

SAGAING REGION

Sagaing region remains one of the most hard-hit areas by the junta’s violence. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, the terrorist acts committed by the Myanmar junta are worsening in their scope, particularly in areas like Sagaing region where the resistance to the junta has been successful.  The impacts of clashes are continuing to have devastating impacts on civilians.

Worsening hostilities prompted a man overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his wife, son and daughter killed during a raid on his village in Sagaing region, to run towards the soldiers responsible, calling on them to shoot him, to which they did. More and more harrowing accounts are emerging and are continuing to expose the relentlessness of the junta. No civilian is safe, no life spared.

In addition, over a dozen homes were scorched by the junta in Ai Taung West village, Kani township, forcing more villagers to flee. Burning homes has become a common tactic deployed by the regime. In Chaung-U village, the military also set fire to the majority of the 400 households. Alongside the raids, possessions of civilians have been stolen, including cash, valuables and livestock.


Military bombs civilian area in Karenni State’s Demoso Township, killing three people

The targeted villages are near the town of Nan Mei Khon and along the strategic road connecting two resistance strongholds: Demoso and Moebye 

Three civilians were killed and five were injured after the Myanmar army attacked two villages in Karenni State’s Demoso Township from the air on Wednesday evening.

A military jet bombed Dung Ka Mee and Si Li Dung, which are separated by a road, just after 6pm, according to a volunteer rescue worker. The villages are less than 10km from Nan Mei Khon town.

“Three civilians died on the spot. An older woman was left unconscious and is now in critical condition,” he told Myanmar Now.

The casualties included three men, two of whom were found dead inside a house in Dung Ka Mee, and one who had been travelling by motorcycle on the road near the house at the time of the blast.

“The motorcyclist came along the main road, which was exactly where the military bomb dropped and he got hit,” the rescue worker said.

Those injured included a 60-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man, and three individuals who have yet to be identified.

A house in each of the two villages was destroyed.

On Thursday there were reportedly three more airstrikes on the Nan Mei Khon area between 5:30am and 12:30pm, according to the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF).

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An injured local is seen getting medical treatment after the air attack on Tuesday (KNDF)An injured local is seen getting medical treatment after the air attack on Tuesday (KNDF)

Battles reignited between the junta’s forces and a Karenni resistance alliance in Moebye, southern Shan State, on February 16. The military has employed both heavy weapons and airstrikes during the clashes.

“The battles actually started in Moebye and it spread to Nan Mei Khon. You can get to Loikaw and also to Demoso through Dung Ka Mee village as it connects Demoso and Moebye,” the rescue worker said, referring to the road where the bombs hit.

The military council has not released any information on the incident.

According to the statement released by the KNDF, 61 junta soldiers had died in the eight nonstop days of battles on Wednesday.

More than 20 resistance fighters had also been killed during that same period, according to reports released by their respective guerrilla groups.

Myanmar Now News

Press Statement: Myanmar CSOs meet with the UN Special Envoy

Reiterates CSOs rejection of power-sharing with the military junta, offers recommendations to UNSE

On 21 February, representatives of 20 Myanmar civil society organizations (CSOs) met with the UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar.

The meeting followed a joint statement issued by 247 CSOs in response to the UN Special Envoy’s (UNSE’s) interview with the Channel News Asia (CNA).

While reiterating concerns expressed in their statement, the representatives assured the UNSE that the Myanmar people’s revolution presents an unprecedented opportunity for a peaceful Myanmar, as the people themselves have come to identify their collective vision for a new Myanmar that is based on federal democracy.

The calls have been clear: a new vision of Myanmar does not include the military in politics.

The representatives expressed concern over possible UN and governments attempts to convince political entities in Myanmar to enter into power sharing settlements in the lead up to the military junta orchestrated August 2023 elections. During the meeting, the representatives stated that it is extremely crucial for the UN to understand that the current political crisis is not between the National League for Democracy and the junta or between the National Unity Government (NUG) and the junta, but it is the junta staging a war against the nation and committing violence and atrocities against the people.

In addition, the representatives emphasized the need for justice and accountability. They emphasized that the terrorist military junta, who have committed grave crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes – must be held accountable, and not offered more power, a seat at the table or legitimacy from the international community.

The representatives also reiterated their concern regarding the UNSE’s comment that “the military is in control at this particular time”, stressing that such comment is a misinterpretation based on misconstrued understanding of the realities on the ground. Myanmar people have resisted the brutal and sadistic tactics of the illegal terrorist military junta and successfully prevented it from gaining territorial, political or economic control over the country for over a year – the representatives urged the UN to acknowledge this historic feat.

Moreover, the groups emphasized that the mandate of the UNSE has been historically ineffectual. The groups urged the mandate to be transformed from its traditional approach of peace brokering to center on accountability and moves to achieve transitional justice, to strengthen relevance of the role that reflects the current realities on the ground. The groups also urged that the mandate should ensure that stakeholders engaging in Myanmar comply with UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions relevant to the protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict, including UNSC resolutions on Women Peace and Security.

In addition, the representatives urged the UNSE to put in place necessary measures to ensure Myanmar people’s voices are given priority and ensure that procedures include a robust and inclusive engagement with Myanmar civil society organizations. In this regard, the groups expressed their readiness to continue to engage with the UNSE.

Finally, the groups called on the UNSE to bring several recommendations put forward by the people of Myanmar and CSOs to the UN, ASEAN and the wider international community. These include the following;

On humanitarian aid, the UN, ASEAN and international humanitarian aid organizations must:

  • Disengage from partnering with the junta in the provision of humanitarian assistance, preventing them from weaponizing humanitarian aid in their campaign of terror against the people or for the junta to use humanitarian assistance as leverage to gain legitimacy.
  • Direct humanitarian aid through cross-border channels, local humanitarian and medical networks, ethnic service providers, community-based and civil society organizations, regardless of their registration status.
  • Ensure the development of a holistic strategy in addressing the human rights and humanitarian crisis guided by the principles of “do no harm” and non-discrimination, and take effective measures to ensure that all engagement in Myanmar is subject to rigorous and ongoing human rights, security risk, and mitigation assessments.
  • Conduct transparent dialogue and consultations with Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and CSOs to ensure communities are included in the process of decision making and in the distribution of aid, including how funds and aid is being allocated and to identify immediate and most urgent needs on the ground.
  • Consult and sign MoUs with the NUG and Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs)/Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) to address the deepening humanitarian crisis across the country.
  • Reduce restrictions and complex funding requirements for Community-based Organizations and CSOs, working in conflict-related humanitarian service provision.

To ASEAN:

  • Recognize and formally engage with the NUG, National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) and EAOs/EROs.
  • Recognize that ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) does not have the mandate, capacity or the independence to tackle the dire humanitarian situation and deliver aid to the people of Myanmar in a way that does not lend tactical and political advantage to the junta and seek the support of a UN-led humanitarian response.
  • Stop inviting the military junta and their representatives to meetings, forums and summits and allowing the military to play a part or hold chairmanship in different ASEAN institutions.

To the UN Security Council:

The UNSC must adopt a resolution on Myanmar that includes the following:

  • Impose a global arms embargo and prevent the provision of weapons and dual-purpose equipment to the junta.
  • Impose targeted sanctions against Myanmar military-linked businesses, their partners and associates as well as their network of arms dealers. Member States must also sanction the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.
  • Immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and those who have been arbitrarily detained as well as to drop all warrants against the people.
  • Denounce, in the strongest terms, the indiscriminate airstrikes by the Myanmar military against unarmed civilians, civilian objects, villages, internally displaced persons camps, and buildings and structures including religious buildings, schools, hospitals, and historic monuments.
  • Immediately sanction aviation fuel in order to stop the military from further inflicting violence using aerial strikes and impose no-fly zones in conflict areas, particularly along the border areas.
  • Refer the situation of Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.

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