Civilians fleeing Pyin Oo Lwin as Myanmar military prepares defences

Fearing approaching conflict as the military positioned troops at a university outside Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region this week, local civilians said they were leaving the area to seek safety elsewhere. According to local sources, armed junta personnel entered and occupied the University of Technology in the Yatanarpon Cyber City information and communications technology park some 15 miles southwest of Pyin Oo Lwin on Wednesday morning. A local man from Pyin Oo Lwin said the army may have chosen to deploy troops to the university, which is located between Pyin Oo Lwin Township’s Pyin Sar and Thone Taung villages on a hill overlooking Mandalay, to gain a strategic advantage. “It's a good place for helicopters to land. You can see Mandalay and the Yan Kin hills from there. It’s a tactically useful hilltop that could be used for shelling,” he said. “It's a spacious area with good visibility.” Locals said that university staff and students left after the junta forces arrived. “Everyone has gone back,” a local woman said. “Many students at this university came from quite far away. They've returned to their hometowns.” The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed group taking part in a broad, coordinated offensive against the military along with various allies, has captured the town of Nawnghkio, northern Shan State some 35 miles northeast of Pyin Oo Lwin. Resistance forces commanded by the publicly-mandated National Unity Government have also attacked Patheingyi Township between Pyin Oo Lwin and Mandalay after previous clashes with military forces in Madaya and Singu townships to the north. The regime has tightened security near Pyin Oo Lwin in response. Residents of the area said entrances and exits on the road between Pyin Oo Lwin and Nawnghkio have been closed since Monday. Checkpoints at the 16-mile and 22-mile markers on the Mandalay-Pyin Oo Lwin road were conducting thorough inspections of vehicles entering and leaving the town, according to locals, and junta personnel had begun to clear trees and bushes near military bases, police stations, administrative offices, and other defensive positions in Pyin Oo Lwin Township. Locals said junta personnel had also begun to construct fortified towers near the Pyin Sar police station. Observing the military’s heightened security measures and redeployment of troops to various new defensive positions, local civilians have become increasingly alarmed or begun to flee the area. "We’ve been worried since they deployed there,” said the woman living near the University of Technology, referring to herself and other Pyin Oo Lwin Township residents. “Some are planning to move to Yangon, fearing that they might fire artillery unexpectedly or start coming into the villages.” “According to what we’ve heard, people started fleeing on the 10th of last month,” a man from Pyin Oo Lwin said. “Some even fled to Mandalay overnight, worried that Pyin Oo Lwin would be attacked.” Some soldiers’ families living in Pyin Oo Lwin Township have also relocated with their belongings. A soldier’s family member confirmed that those with the means, especially officers’ families with private cars, had started to relocate to relatives’ homes out of harm’s way, especially in major cities like Naypyitaw. “People with large families, and especially with children and elderly relatives, are moving. But not everyone,” the soldier’s family member said. Myanmar’s military is increasingly using the families of soldiers to provide security at bases outside major cities as it continues to lose ground to anti-regime forces. According to military families, the junta has not kept them from moving out of Pyin Oo Lwin Township but has not lent them any assistance in relocating. “Those who have difficulties relocating continue to stay in the army compound and strengthen rear security. They haven’t relocated yet, believing that if something happens, the entire town will share the same fate,” a soldier’s wife living in Pyin Oo Lwin said. She added that she had not moved because she preferred not to leave her husband, a captain, but was ready to evacuate to a safe area if the fighting worsened enough to pose a real danger. Pyin Oo Lwin, located in the hills some 40 miles east of Mandalay, is known as a stronghold for the military and the location of its premier officer training facilities. Its relatively mild climate has also given it a reputation a retreat from the hotter lowlands since the British colonial era. According to people living inside Pyin Oo Lwin and on its outskirts, the town has become noticeably quieter after the departure of so many residents.

Civilians fleeing Pyin Oo Lwin as Myanmar military prepares defences

Residents of the area are relocating after noticing heightened security measures and troop deployments evidently intended to fend off attacks by advancing anti-junta forces

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