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Junta artillery destroys 400 homes, kills 5 in southern Myanmar

April 5, 2024/in News

Most residents had left the village to avoid getting caught up in armed conflict before the attack. Junta artillery shelling in the southern part of Myanmar killed five people and burned down an estimated 400 homes, the first major attack in relatively peaceful Mon state since the February 2021 military coup d’état, residents said. Naval […]

Myanmar Resistance Groups Hope For Aid Boost After Meeting With Top Biden Advisor

April 5, 2024/in News

Senior officers of two ethnic armed organizations allied with the civilian National Union Government (NUG) say they hope a meeting late last month with a key foreign policy advisor to US President Joseph Biden will result in the delivery of more humanitarian assistance to people affected by the escalating conflict in Myanmar. Their statements follow […]

Junta artillery destroys 400 homes, kills 5 in southern Myanmar

April 5, 2024/in News

Myanmar Resistance Groups Hope For Aid Boost After Meeting With Top Biden Advisor

April 5, 2024/in News

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Junta artillery destroys 400 homes, kills 5 in southern Myanmar

April 5, 2024/in News

Most residents had left the village to avoid getting caught up in armed conflict before the attack.

Junta artillery shelling in the southern part of Myanmar killed five people and burned down an estimated 400 homes, the first major attack in relatively peaceful Mon state since the February 2021 military coup d’état, residents said.

Naval vessels fired heavy weapons at Dhamma Tha village in Kyaikmaraw township from the Gyaing River on March 27-28, killing a 12-year-old child, two women and two others, according to the Mon State Federal Council, or MSFC, a political organization representing the people of the state.

More houses went up in flames after junta troops barred fire trucks from entering the area, destroying about one-third of the village’s more than 1,000 homes, residents said.

Houses burn following a naval attack from a nearby river by the military junta, in Dhamma Tha village, Kyaikmaraw township, in southern Myanmar’s Mon state, March 27, 2024. (Mi Jandai Mon via Facebook)

The village — the native home of the leader of an ethnic Mon armed resistance group that declared war against the junta in February — was the first community in the state to suffer significant damage in more than three years after the military toppled the elected government.

The Myanmar military’s power grab triggered a wave of resistance by insurgents and ethnic armed organizations across the country. In response, junta forces have targeted civilians, viewing them as a support base for armed resistance groups, resulting in thousands of deaths and mass displacements.

The junta attacked Dhamma Tha village, even though Nai Banyar Lel, deputy leader of the anti-junta New Mon State Party-Anti-Dictatorship group, or NMSP-AD, and his family do not live there, said Mi Su Ta, head of the MSFC’s Humanitarian and Relief Department.

“It was a very crazy and inhumane attack on the village,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It was also a terror attack on civilian targets.”

Residents said most people fled the village to avoid getting caught up in armed conflict before the deadly shelling occurred, and returned afterwards only to see houses they had built with money they earned from blue-collar jobs in Thailand and Malaysia in ashes.

More than 10,000 people who lost their homes fled to Mawlamyine, capital of Mon state and the country’s fourth-largest city with an estimated population of 438,000.

Suppressing ‘the revolutionary spirit’

Dhamma Tha village is close to Kawt Bein village police station in Kawkareik township of neighboring Kayin state, which was captured by the Karen National Liberation Army — an ethnic armed group that controls parts of Mon state — and joint revolutionary forces on March 25, and to Ta Ra Na village where junta troops are based.

NMSP-AD spokesman Nai Banya Mon said the military council retaliated against Mon resistance forces and Mon communities for their strong support of the seizure of Kawt Bein police station.

“It was concluded that the village was set on fire to suppress the revolutionary spirit of the Mon people, and the military might have considered this tactic to crack down on the resistance movement of the Mon people,” he said.

Area resistance groups said the junta has reinforced its troops so they don’t lose the Ta Ra Na village police station near Dhamma Tha village to resistance fighters.

The military council has not issued a statement about the shelling of the village.

RFA could not reach Aung Myat Kyaw Sein, Mon state’s natural resources minister and spokesman under the junta, for comment.

Junta forces, including pro-regime militias, burned about 79,000 civilian homes across Myanmar between February 2021 and December 2023, according to the independent research group Data for Myanmar.

RFA News

Myanmar Resistance Groups Hope For Aid Boost After Meeting With Top Biden Advisor

April 5, 2024/in News

Their statements follow a meeting late last month between leaders of the four ethnic armed organizations and US State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet.

On March 29, Chollet wrote on the social media platform formally known as Twitter: “Met today with leaders of Burma’s ‘K3C’ ethnic group alliance on their extraordinary efforts to pursue a federal democracy in Burma.”

“We discussed steps for the international community to expand assistance to those in need and secure a better future for the people of Burma,” he said, referring to Myanmar by its previous name.

The K3C comprises four of the country’s oldest ethnic armed organizations: the Kachin Independence Organization, Karen National Union, Karenni National Progressive Party and Chin National Front.

The coalition is politically aligned with the NUG and cooperates militarily with its armed wing, the People’s Defense Force.

The armed wings of the four ethnic groups have driven the junta’s military from large swathes of Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni (Kayah) and Mon states as well as Bago and Tanintharyi regions.

U Aung San Myint, a general secretary of the Karenni National Progressive Party, told The Irrawaddy that representatives of the four groups discussed providing aid to those affected by escalating fighting between resistance groups and the junta’s military.

They agreed that Washington will provide humanitarian aid to refugees on Myanmar’s borders, U Aung San Myint said.

He also said the Washington will cooperate with ethnic armed groups battling junta troops to provide the aid.

“He [Chollet] told us they will continue to cooperate with us” U Aung San Myint said.

Chin National Front spokesperson Salai Htet Ni told the Irrawaddy on that Chollet was informed at the meeting that junta boss Min Aung Hlaing vowed again to eradicate ethnic armed organizations and the NUG.

Min Aung Hlaing pledged to do so in a speech marking the 79^th Myanmar Armed Force Day on March 25.

Salai Htet Ni said he hoped the meeting with Chollet would lead to more help from Washington.

“Despite this being a regular meeting between us [K3C] and the US, we hope that the US will give special consideration [for our country] soon,” he said, explaining that the groups has had regular meetings with US officials.

The US government recently approved a US$ 121 million aid budget for the people of Myanmar under the US National Defense Authorization Act.

The aid will be directed to those affected by fighting and conflict and those who participate in the democracy movement.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military ousted the democratically elected government on Feb. 1, 2021. The junta’s military has faced escalating attacks by ethnic armed organizations and PDFs nationwide since then and has lost control over much of the country.

Internationally, the junta is shunned, drawing support primarily from other pariah states.

Domestically, Myanmar is experiencing an escalating humanitarian catastrophe. About 2.8 million people have been displaced by fighting between resistance groups and regime forces since the coup, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday.

Irrawaddy News

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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.

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