Blog Elements – Page 143

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Week of fierce fighting forces 50,000 to flee Kale township in Myanmar’s north

April 7, 2023/in News

Junta troops attacked 17 villages with ground troops, heavy artillery and airstrikes. Heavy artillery began raining from the sky onto villages to the north of Kale township on March 30, touching off what would become a week of fierce fighting between junta troops and local armed opposition forces. By the time the dust had settled […]

Clashes near Myawaddy displace thousands of civilians to Thailand

April 7, 2023/in News

The battles took place near Shwe Kokko, the site of a major development project partly owned by the junta-allied general secretary of Karen State’s Border Guard Force Junta forces continued to battle the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and their allies this week near the town of Shwe Kokko, north of Myawaddy, Karen State, forcing […]

Week of fierce fighting forces 50,000 to flee Kale township in Myanmar’s north

April 7, 2023/in News

Clashes near Myawaddy displace thousands of civilians to Thailand

April 7, 2023/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Week of fierce fighting forces 50,000 to flee Kale township in Myanmar’s north

April 7, 2023/in News

Junta troops attacked 17 villages with ground troops, heavy artillery and airstrikes.

Heavy artillery began raining from the sky onto villages to the north of Kale township on March 30, touching off what would become a week of fierce fighting between junta troops and local armed opposition forces.

By the time the dust had settled on Wednesday, more than 50,000 residents of 17 villages had scattered, leaving a vast swathe of area on the outskirts of the bustling township in Myanmar’s Sagaing region eerily quiet and creating a humanitarian crisis in nearby population centers where many fled to seek shelter.

“They all had to flee to the town of Kalay – the number of refugees coming into town amounted up to about 30,000 in two days, according to our calculations,” an aid worker assisting the displaced told Radio Free Asia. The influx of refugees amounts to nearly a quarter of the town’s population of around 130,000.

“What they mainly need is mosquito nets, as there are a lot of mosquitoes in the summer. The weather is too hot, too. They need medicines and food such as rice, cooking oil and salt.”

Following the artillery barrage, junta troops from the junta’s Kale-based Kha-La-Ya (228) unit, backed by forces from the regional command headquarters, conducted village raids using ground troops while aircraft provided support.

A fighter jet and three military helicopters were deployed to attack a location near the village of Pyin Taw U on Monday evening alone, residents said.

An official with the anti-junta Kale People’s Defense Force paramilitary group told RFA that multiple buildings were destroyed during the week of raids.

“How the fighting broke out was that the junta forces first started firing heavy artillery on the villages in the north of Kale more than 40 times and then their ground troops [and air force] began to attack,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.

“We haven’t been able to confirm the details of the casualties and property damage in the villages yet. A Christian church and several houses have been damaged,” he said. “The junta threw fire bombs into the villages [on Thursday]. Nyung Kone and Kyi Kone villages are still burning.”

The official said that two people from the Kale PDF had been captured by the junta, one was killed and three were injured in the fighting.

A spokesman for the Kale PDF claimed that 10 junta soldiers were killed and 20 were wounded over the course of the week, but RFA has not been able to independently confirm the numbers.

A Baptist church in Kale’s Pyidaw village, Sagaing region, was destroyed by air raids by Myanmar junta forces, Monday, April 3, 2023. Credit: Chin National League (Upper Chindwin)

Early on Tuesday, fighting broke out between junta soldiers stationed at Kale University and the anti-junta Siyin region Civic Defense Militia, the militia said in a statement. One junta soldier was killed and CDM forces captured some military weapons, the group said.

Attempts by RFA to reach Aye Hlaing, the junta spokesman for Sagaing region, about the clashes went unanswered Friday.

‘Our village is burning’

A resident of one of the villages north of Kale, who also declined to be named, told RFA that most of the people displaced by the fighting are sheltering in the homes of relatives in town, churches and Bible schools, or in the jungle.

Other sources said that at least two civilians were killed by the military during the raids, while three others were injured by shelling and airstrikes.

Meanwhile, the junta troops have set up camp at a Buddhist monastery in Nyang Kone village, making it impossible to return to the area, a resident said.

“When the fighting paused, we returned home riding motorcycles to fetch our items of value, but once we heard them start back up, we had to flee again,” the Nyang Kone resident said.

“We can hear gunshots and artillery shelling from the town. I dare not go back to my village. Other villagers who fled to the nearby woods said that our village is burning.”

On Thursday, the anti-junta Kale Defense Force issued a warning to residents traveling to the north of the township that “a fight could break out at any time.”

Residents estimate that since Myanmar’s military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup d’etat, around 70,000 people – or 1 out of every 5 inhabitants – have fled fighting in Kale township.

RFA News

Clashes near Myawaddy displace thousands of civilians to Thailand

April 7, 2023/in News

The battles took place near Shwe Kokko, the site of a major development project partly owned by the junta-allied general secretary of Karen State’s Border Guard Force

Junta forces continued to battle the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and their allies this week near the town of Shwe Kokko, north of Myawaddy, Karen State, forcing thousands of locals to flee to the Thai border.

Several Border Guard Force (BGF) outposts near the Shwe Kokko-Yatai New City development project came under attack by KNLA and allied forces on Wednesday, leading to ongoing clashes, according to officials of the KNLA’s political wing, the Karen National Union (KNU).

The Lion Battalion Commando Special Force, a resistance group involved in the attacks, released a video on Thursday night along with a statement saying that some 80 members of the military and BGF were killed in the fighting, and another 60 injured. The video showed arms and equipment seized from the military and BGF forces.

Shwe Kokko, located on the Thai-Myanmar border, is the site of the Shwe Kokko-Yatai New City development project. The project is operated as a partnership between Brig- Gen Saw Chit Thu, head of the junta-allied BGF in Karen State, and Yatai International Holdings Group, a Chinese company registered in Hong Kong.

Largely financed by Chinese and other foreign investors, the project faced significant opposition during the civilian administration of the National League of Democracy (NLD) and was put on hold in 2020 following a government inquiry into its business practices.

However, the project resumed operations after the 2021 military coup and has become notorious for scandals involving labour abuse and trafficking, the victims of which included foreign workers recruited from abroad, especially within online gambling facilities operating in the town.

Displaced people crossing the Thaungyin (Moei) River on Wednesday (Supplied)

While the recent fighting is known to have caused casualties among the KNLA and allied resistance forces, the details are still unknown, according to Padoh Saw Liston, the district secretary of KNLA Brigade 6.

“We heard that there were several casualties on our side but we still don’t know the details as things are very complicated in Kawkareik, Thingan Nyi Naung, Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko,” Padoh Saw Liston said on Thursday, referring to the towns near which battles have occurred in recent weeks.

The KNLA-allied resistance forces attacked BGF outposts in Hti Kaw Htaw village, located 6 miles from Shwe Kokko, on Wednesday. The military targeted the area with heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes during the ensuing battle.

The air and artillery strikes forced more than 6,000 residents of Hti Kaw Htaw and nearby villages on the Thaungyin (Moei) River to flee to the Thai-Myanmar border as of Wednesday.

Displaced people that crossed the border into Thailand are now sheltering on three acres of land owned by a local Thai woman and receiving aid from the Thai military and other authorities, according to a person assisting with the process.

“We could hear heavy artillery shells going off, and the battles were still going on this morning,” the individual said.

Bodies of BGF members killed in battle, in an image shared widely on social media on Friday

Allied KNLA and PDF forces operating in KNU territory announced today that part of the Asia Highway connecting Myawaddy and Kawkareik will be closed for two weeks due to ongoing clashes and the military sending reinforcements in civilian vehicles. As the highway is crucial for the border trade between Thailand and Myanmar, many commercial trucks had to turn back on Friday, according to a businessman familiar with the matter.

During a speech at an Armed Forces Day ceremony in Naypyidaw on March 27, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing said that the military would take decisive action against the publicly mandated and anti-junta National Unity Government, the People’s Defence Forces, and the ethnic armed organisations aiding them. Battlesbroke out in Karen State shortly afterwards.

Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesperson for the KNU, said that there were now around 500,000 internally displaced people in Karen State due to the ongoing fighting.

Myanmar Now News

Spring Revolution

Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 8 to 14, 2024)September 20, 2024 - 2:30 pm
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 8 to 14, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Magway Region, Shan State, Kachin State, and Rakhine State from September 8th to 14th. Military Junta arrested the civilians as human shields from Mindon Township, Magway Region, and Salingyi Township, […]
Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 1 to 7, 2024)September 13, 2024 - 5:08 pm
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 1 to 7, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Magway Region, and Shan State from September 1st to 7th. The Military Junta threatened that they would launch airstrikes on the townships which they lost. The […]
Human Rights Situation weekly update (Aug 22 to 31, 2024)September 7, 2024 - 4:09 pm
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Aug 22 to 31, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Bago Region, Mandalay Region, Tanintharyi Region, and Shan State from August 22nd to 31st. Head of Prison which works under Military Junta, tortured and blackmailed the […]

Multimedia

What is the Truth (Cartoon Animation)May 31, 2024 - 4:58 pm
What is Transitional Justice (Cartoon Animation)May 3, 2024 - 8:38 am
Close the SkyApril 11, 2024 - 7:45 am
Forced MarriageJanuary 9, 2024 - 2:12 pm

ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

ND Burma

Recent Posts