Hundreds of people have fled their homes in southern Chin State since last week after a column of junta soldiers overran the command post of a local resistance group, before coming under attack itself days later.
Some 200 troops from the junta’s Light Infantry Division (LID) 55 attacked the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) base in San Ma Thar, a village in the northern part of Kanpetlet Township, on March 15.
The CDF said it withdrew the following day because it was outgunned by the attackers and concerned that civilians in the area would be hurt if they kept fighting. The soldiers raided the command post and burned it down.
They then pursued the CDF fighters through surrounding woodlands, and detained three elderly men who were fleeing the violence and made them serve as their guides, said Salai Aung Ling, the deputy division commander of the Kanpetlet CDF.
At around 2pm on March 19, the LID 55 soldiers came under attack by the CDF near Long Pauk village, which is eight miles from the captured command post.
“We waited for them along their route and ambushed them. So many of them were injured,” Salai Aung Ling said, adding that three junta soldiers were killed and a member of the Kanpetlet CDF was injured during the two-hour battle.
The soldiers spent the night in Long Pauk village and the three men they had captured reportedly escaped under the cover of darkness. The next morning, the soldiers headed towards the town of Mindat, and the area has been calm since then.
Since the clashes started last week over 1,200 people have fled from the villages of San Ma Thar, Kyawt Taw, Am Pon, Khi Taw, and Ma Swi Twi, a Christian priest helping the displaced locals told Myanmar Now.
They are in need of food, medicine, and sanitary supplies, he said.
Another 6,000 people have already been displaced in Kanpetlet since clashes began in the township in May last year. Reinforcements from LID 55 began arriving in the area in early February, and fighting has intensified since then.
Over 300 soldiers from LID 99 and other battalions are stationed inside schools, police stations and township education offices in the town of Kanpetlet. They did not leave the urban center to help the LID 55 troops during the recent clashes in the surrounding villages.
