The Myanmar army set fire to more homes in the deserted Chin State town of Thantlang this week, the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) reported.
More than 900 of Thantlang’s 2,300 homes have been destroyed since September of last year, a period during which the junta’s forces set fire to buildings in the town a total of 25 times, according to the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) in Thantlang. Some 19 religious buildings have also been lost.
At the time of reporting, it was not known how many more houses the military had torched in the most recent act of arson, which took place on Sunday.
The burning, CHRO said, followed the triggering of a landmine by a battalion commander, causing him serious injury. Lt-Col Myo Zin Tun, who leads Infantry Battalion (IB) 269, lost his leg when the device—which CHRO reported that he had planted—went off on Sunday.
Myanmar Now is unable to independently verify who had set up the mine in question.
Junta troops under his command started burning the remaining houses in Thantlang that day.
“It’s very inhumane and cruel of them to destroy people’s property like this,” Salai Lian, a spokesperson for the Thantlang Placement Affairs Committee—which works with displaced persons—told Myanmar Now.
Thantlang originally had a population of between 8,000 and 10,000, all of whom have been displaced by the military occupation and clashes with resistance forces in the area. Many of the town’s former residents have been sheltering in nearby forests.
The military has also cut off the transportation routes and the supply of commodities to Thantlang Township, leaving locals in hiding with a lack of food and basic necessities, including medicines, Salai Lian explained.
A junta spokesperson claimed last year that the fires in Thantlang were started not by the Myanmar army but by the local resistance forces, which the military council referred to as “terrorist” organisations.
Prior to Sunday’s burning, 95 homes and a church in Thantlang were most recently destroyed in fires at the end of January during a three-day battle between the CDF-Thantlang and the military in which seven junta soldiers were allegedly killed.
Troops from IB 269, IB 222 and Light Infantry Division 11 are all reportedly positioned on a strategic hill overlooking Thantlang, the CDF-Thantlang said in a statement in December of last year.
The CDF-Thantlang is known to occasionally ambush junta forces during patrols in the area, and has stated that the fires set to civilians’ homes in the town by the Myanmar army are likely in retaliation for these attacks.
