Mone, May (18)
Nearly 10,000 people have been forced to flee junta operations after fighting broke out between regime troops and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in Mone Township under KNU Brigade 3, reported the KNU.
In the early morning of May 14, the combined force of the KNLA clashed with junta troops who launched an offensive in KNU-held Nyaunglaybin District’s Mone Township.
As a result of the military council’s offensive attacks and artillery fire into the villages, 8,696 people from eight villages fled to safety.
Regarding the junta activities and human rights violations committed in the KNU-controlled areas, Saw Nanda Su, the organizing official of the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), said the following:
“Air strikes, indiscriminate shooting with heavy weapons, arbitrary arrests, torture, the use of villagers as human shields, and killings are still happening. Especially the most human rights violations are seen in the areas of our Brigades 1, 3, 5 and 6, amid the fighting. Because the fighting continues, local people were killed or injured by heavy weapon fire and airstrikes. They live in fear and have no freedom of movement. The fighting also hinders their livelihoods”.
Meanwhile, the regime troops have stationed in Kyaunsu (Pawpide) village, arresting the people and shooting for no reason, according to the displaced people.
The people are facing the brutal actions of the regime forces and are in need of humanitarian aid, said the KNU.
It has been said that the junta army arrested nearly 30 local people, burned 20 people, including four children and 11 women, and took seven people as human shields after the fighting between the two sides in Nyaunglaybin District’s Mone Township on May 10.
Moreover, junta-aligned forces have continued firing heavy weapons into Mone Township on a daily basis.
News-Than Lwin Times
Photo-CJ
Thanlwintimes