Myanmar junta forces burn nearly 200 homes in Bago Region

An army column of hundreds of troops raided and burned villages in Minhla Township, western Bago Region on Tuesday morning, destroying nearly 200 homes, according to local resistance fighters. The raids and arson attacks have destroyed at least 11 villages since mid-June, according to the Minhla Township People’s Defence Organisation (PDO). According to a leading official of the Minhla Township PDO, the soldiers burned around 50 houses in Nga Hla San village and 40 in Kywe Ma Kaing. Homes were also burned on Wednesday morning in Za Yit Hmyaung and Shwe Pauk Pin villages, but details about the extent of the damage are unconfirmed. Infantry columns have been advancing through the region towards the Bago Yoma hills since June 20, travelling via the Yangon-Pyay road on the east side of Minhla Township and the town of Sit Kwin in Thayarwaddy District. According to resistance sources, the junta columns came into the area after the Thayarwaddy District People’s Defence Force (PDF) overran a checkpoint and police outpost in Sit Kwin, killing 20 junta soldiers including officers. “They’re retaliating for the deaths of these senior officers. When they retaliate, they face the PDF directly in combat, but destroying the homes and villages of innocent civilians who have nothing to do with the PDF is extremely wicked,” said an officer of the Minhla Township PDO. While resistance fighters do pass through these villages, they have not established bases there and the residents are not sheltering or assisting them, he added, but the junta troops still chose to target civilian areas with arson attacks and heavy artillery strikes. “There are killings and heavy artillery attacks by the troops,” he said. “If there were confirmed PDF camps, they could attack those locations, but why attack villages? When villages are attacked, the suffering for the villagers is immense.” Some of the villagers who fled the junta attacks, including children, pregnant mothers, and the elderly, are sheltering in the surrounding forest, usually camping in the open, according to the Thayarwaddy District PDF official. Most people displaced by the conflict to date have taken refuge in urban areas of western Bago Region including the town of Minhla, while some 10,000 displaced people are sheltering in the Bago Yoma hills or nearby villages where their relatives live. Locals helping the displaced say they are in need of more food, shelter, and medicine.

Myanmar junta forces burn nearly 200 homes in Bago Region

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