With his fists clenched, Maung Tun recounts how his sister Mot Swei died in late November 2019.
She and her sisters were picking corn in a family field in Manwar, a village in northern Shan state’s Namtu township. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an artillery shell fell from the sky. A moment later, the 34-year-old mother of three was dead.
Like many others in the region, Mot Swei had moved to China for work, but returned annually for the traditional Shan New Year. She was visiting with her two-year-old daughter when her life came to an abrupt and bloody end.
“My late sister didn’t live in the village,” said Maung Tun. “She met her husband in China, and later they moved to Kachin state. She was visiting her home village for just a few days. I didn’t know what to say to my brother-in-law and nieces.”
All three of Maung Tun’s sisters were hit by the shell that killed Mot Swei, but two escaped with injuries. Mot Swei’s husband, who had returned to China for work, was unable to attend his wife’s funeral. Their three children are being cared for by their grandparents.
More than a year after Mot Swei’s death, the family still has no idea who fired the artillery shell that ended her life.
There were two ethnic armed groups carrying out military operations near Manwar at the time of the incident—the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). Both have denied responsibility.
Extortion season
Adding to their hardship, local villagers say they are also forced to pay “taxes” to both groups, which use these revenues to finance the cycle of violence.
November and December are the hardest months. Locals call this “the time of protection money,” when the armed groups come to collect their year-end dues and then ramp up their fighting.
Recently, the situation has gotten worse.
“This year is different,” said a local resident who asked not to be named. “In the past, each household had to provide one and a half baskets of rice. Now they will only take money—45,000 kyat, twice as much as before. And businesses such as gas stations or grocery stores have to pay 500,000 kyat.”
And it isn’t just two groups extorting money from civilians. In some cases, local businesses are expected to pay off so-called “people’s militias,” too.
No one dares say no to these demands. Everyone pays up at the appointed time, or risks abduction or even murder if they fail to heed warnings.
Counting the clashes
All of this plays out against a backdrop of endemic violence. According to the Burma Monitor, which monitors armed conflict in Myanmar, there were 163 clashes among armed groups, including the Tatmadaw, in northern Shan State in 2019. These left 64 civilians dead and 58 injured.
A recent incident occurred on December 10, when shelling injured an 18-year-old pregnant woman, two women in their fifties, and a 15-year-old student during clashes between the RCSS/SSA and the TNLA near Nampai, a village in Namtu township.
As is usual in such cases, both sides blamed the other.
The reason civilian casualties are so high is that combatants routinely set up camp in the vicinity of village schools and monasteries, making them targets of hostile fire.
Clashes over the past month have forced many to flee. Villagers from around Mansan, another village in Namtu, have only recently begun returning to their homes following clashes between the RCSS/SSA and the TNLA on December 8 and 9.
“They went back yesterday. They had to store their crops and feed their livestock. But the situation there is still very tense,” said Sai Kyaw, a volunteer who works with war refugees.
Meanwhile, fresh clashes in the area between the villages of Na Sai and Pan Chin in Namtu township on January 3 and 4 have sent more people fleeing for their lives.
Located just 45 miles from Lashio, the largest town in northern Shan state, Namtu is also only around 20 miles from the headquarters of the Tatmadaw’s North Eastern Regional Military Command.
A ceasefire-fuelled conflict
The RCSS/SSA is often referred to as the SSA-South, to distinguish it from the Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), or SSA-North. The former group signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in 2015, but the latter is a non-signatory, as is its ally, the TNLA.
While the NCA was hailed as a step towards establishing peace in Myanmar, northern Shan state has actually seen an increase in fighting since the RCSS/SSA joined.
The current hostilities between the RCSS/SSA and the TNLA date back to a three-day battle near the village of Panlong in Namtu in late 2016.
In 2018, combined TNLA-SSPP/SSA forces clashed with the RCSS/SSA at least 15 times. The TNLA says it has also fought directly with the Myanmar military more than 100 times in recent years, adding to insecurity in the region.
There are currently around 600 war-displaced civilians in Namtu, and another 1,000 in neighbouring Kyaukme township.
In addition to the direct impact of fighting, local people say the conflict has resulted in a breakdown of basic services and commerce in the region.
