Burma
Residents of Thayet Chaung Township in Tanintharyi Region flee junta raids. / Kyaw Min Htike Facebook
The junta’s military has been using civilians as human shields again, this time for raids on villages in southern Tanintharyi Region’s Thayet Chaung Township, local sources say.
About 150 junta troops started raiding villages in the township last Thursday, initially detaining at least 53 residents of Kanet Thiri village. Some were released three days later, local residents said.
“They used them as human shields as they marched from one village to another,” said Ko Kyaw Min Htike, the spokesman of People’s Defense Force Operating Daung Min.
Most of those detained were in their 30s and 40s, and at least 20 are still being held by junta forces, he said.
Junta troops torched three homes in Kanet Thiri village on Saturday, and three in Ya-nge village on Sunday.
Villagers had fled before the raids.
However, a 23-year-old man was shot dead by junta forces when he returned to Ya-nge village to retrieve medicine for his mother, local residents said.
“We fled to villages nearby. Those who could not flee to other villages are staying on farms outside the village. [Junta troops] used a large number of forces and shelled the villages [first],” a resident of Kanet Thiri village said, adding that they face additional hardship because monsoon season has begun.
In April, junta troops detained about 50 civilians in Ya-nge village for no apparent reason. Some were later released.
More than 34,000 people were displaced by fighting and junta artillery strikes in Tanintharyi Region in May, according to Daw Na, a local organization aiding internally displaced people.
Brigade 6 of the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, warned on Saturday that the regime is using civilians as cover to send reinforcements to Mawlamyine, Mudon, Thanbyuzayat, Ye, Dawei, Myeik and No. 8 Highway in Mon State and Tanintharyi Region.
It told local residents not to transport junta troops or anything linked to the regime in their vehicles.
