Junta artillery fire kills two people in northern Shan State IDP camp

Artillery shells reportedly fired by the Myanmar military hit an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township last week, killing two women and injuring an elderly man, according to locals.

On June 17, two bombs fell on a house in the Zup Awng IDP camp, located five miles west of Kutkai town. The camp, set up in 2011, has around 1,000 residents, according to the Kachin News Group.

A man who witnessed the blast said that Nan Lai, 56, and her 28-year-old daughter Dawng Naw, were killed immediately, and La Awng, an 85-year-old man visiting the home at the time of the shelling, suffered injuries to his leg and back. He was sent to Kutkai hospital for treatment that afternoon.

“The explosion was really big. It even left a crater near the house. The roof was riddled with holes as well,” a woman volunteering with IDPs in the region told Myanmar Now. 

Locals described Dawng Naw as active in the community, and in supporting other IDPs. 

Clashes had previously broken out between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the military’s Light Infantry Division (LID) 77, on June 15 and 16 in Kutkai. According to local media reports, the fighting occurred near Karlai and Kone Chan villages, which are located in the same area as the Zup Awng camp.

Heavy artillery shells were reportedly fired by the Myanmar army at Kone Chan one day before the IDP camp was hit, injuring a 50-year-old man. Three people from the village were captured by junta troops during the attack, according to the Lashio-based Shwe Phee Myay News Agency.

KIA information officer Col Naw Bu told Myanmar Now that he had not yet been briefed on battles between Kachin and junta forces occurring in the Karlai area west of Kutkai, where the KIA’s Brigade 4 is active. 

Brigades 6 and 10 also operate in northern Shan State, where KIA allies the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army have also been engaged in clashes with the military. 

The KIA was among the ethnic armed organisations that refused junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s invitation to attend “peace talks” in May, noting that the root causes of civil war in Myanmar were yet to be acknowledged. 

“We don’t believe we can achieve peace without tackling political issues,” Col Naw Bu explained at the time.