More than 400 people have fled the border town of Htee Khee in Tanintharyi Region’s Dawei Township after the junta conducted three airstrikes on the town, members of the Karen National Union (KNU) and local sources said.
According to local residents, junta warplanes attacked the area around Htee Khee, bombing or strafing the ground with machine gun fire, three times in less than a week: on October 8, 10, and 14,
Around noon on Tuesday, a fighter jet bombed the Htee Khee village, destroying buildings and injuring two civilians.
Saw Dah Ko, an officer of Tactical Unit 33 of the People’s Defence Forces’ (PDF) southern military command, described the attack.
“Yesterday a jet fighter came and dropped bombs,” he said on Wednesday. “A shop was hit and a man and a woman were injured. But the injuries are nothing to worry about.”
He added that junta airstrikes have been happening more often in the area near the Thai border as well as in other parts of Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar’s southernmost region.
“In the territories we control and at Thayetchaung, airstrikes are becoming quite frequent,” Saw Dah Ko said, referring to a town near Tanintharyi Region’s Andaman sea coast. “Our assessment is that airstrikes are increasing before the elections.”
The Myanmar junta is planning to hold a general election in phases this coming December and January and has been carrying out a counteroffensive in an effort to subdue the armed resistance and conduct the vote securely in a wider area of the country. Voices in the international community have condemned the planned elections as illegitimate.
Four days before the Wednesday aerial assault, two junta aircraft carried out another airstrike targeting Htee Khee, damaging property with machine gun fire and inducing local civilians to flee their homes.
Just two days before that, junta Y-12 had conducted a series of at least 10 airstrikes on Htee Khee at around 9am and 2pm on October 8, using more than 40 rounds of 120mm ammunition, according to a statement released by the Karen National Union.
The Karen National Union, Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed group, commands seven brigades of fighters, each controlling its own designated territory in an area extending from parts of Tanintharyi Region in the south to the upper edge of Karen (Kayin) State in the north.
Homes were damaged and people incurred injuries during the October 8 airstrikes, but they did not cause any fatalities, a resident of Dawei Township said.
The attacks on Htee Khee have displaced some 400 residents who are now sheltering in the surrounding villages, orchards, and forest.
Thai authorities agreed to negotiations with the KNU after an alliance of anti-junta forces including its armed wing—the Karen National Liberation Army—took over junta base camps in Htee Khee, which makes up a shared trade zone with Phu Nam Ron pass and Ban Kao subdistrict on the other side of the border, in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province.
The KNLA was joined by the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) in its capture of the bases, which took place in May of this year.
With the Thai authorities’ permission, traders and freight trucks have been allowed to pass freely over the border since July. Thailand also granted merchants permission to sell food and other wares in the border trade zone.
Saw Dah Ko said the junta’s airstrikes were hitting areas where there had been no recent fighting on the ground, and appeared to be unprovoked, intended primarily to induce fear among civilians.
“They’re destroying people’s homes so locals can’t live there. They’re also undermining the stability and security in KNU-controlled territories. They are specially targeting border trade routes to force civilians to flee,” he said.
According to the Tanintharyi Region-based monitoring and research organisation FE5 Tanintharyi, as of July more than 80,300 civilians had been displaced by fighting in the region, including the junta’s attacks on the area by sea and air during June.
This figure included more than 40,000 displaced people in Dawei District, and at least 40,000 more in Myeik District.
