Press Statement as Myanmar Tatmadaw (MT) has Come to Target Ta’ang Civilians

By PSLF/TNLA News and Information Department • March 13, 2016

Starting from the 3rd week of February, Myanmar Tatmadaw (MT, or Burma Army) made offensive preparations by sending in an overwhelming force of over 500-truck load of reinforcement, and by the beginning of March, it had deployed its troops against the various operational areas of the Ta’ang Army (TNLA) and started the offensive. Starting from March 2, contacts happen daily between the two sides. Starting from March 2 to date, 15 clashes have taken place between the two sides, and MT carried out two airstrikes. In the battles, the TNLA lost three, whereas the MT side lost more than 100 troops.

Though no clashes happen in villages, the MT troops commit gross human rights violations of firing heavy weapons into villages and the environs, destroying homes by burning, arresting and beating up the villagers in interrogation, who are going about for livelihood, seizing villagers for forced labor, ransacking homes and looting properties etc., and thousands of the civilian populations have to desert their villages to escape harms.

Some Acts of MT Troops

On March 6, from 1000 to 1200 hours, a battle took place in the jungle, in the areas of Mine-yu and Kyaran villages and, at 1200 hours, as the MT troops fired heavy weapons into Kya-ran village, the environ of Ngawt-ngar village and into joan-naw village, without reason, a home was hit and villager, Daw Hta, was wounded in the head. Starting from March 7, villagers of the whole villages of Joan-naw, Ngawt-ngar and Kya-ran fled. On March 7, MT and Pansay militia troops entered Kya-ran village and ransacked homes and took valuable items, killed and ate domesticated chickens, broke into and destroyed the houses, and destroyed rice and paddy of the villagers by burning.
On March 9, a clash took place between the MT and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) troops near Manpu village and, as MT troops fired heavy weapons into the village, a 9-year old child was wounded. After the battle, the MT troops entered into the village and took valuable items, rice and paddy, and burned the paddy that could not be taken.
On March 10, though there was no battle, the MT troops burned down 11 houses of Lwe-kan village, 6 houses of Man-hsaing village and 3 houses of Pain-pun village.
On March 6, the MT troops took away 6 villagers of Ngawt-ngar village of Kutkai Township and on March 11, 5 villagers of Pan-lawt village of Mine-ngort Township for forced labor, as porters.

These acts by MT show that the MT troops are targeting the civilian populations in Ta’ang Region with attacks, even when there was no battle.

News and Information Department.

Download this statement in English here.

သေဘာထားထုတ္ျပန္ေၾကညာခ်က္ ျမန္မာဘာသာကုိ ဤ ေနရာတြင္ ရယူႏိုင္သည္။

Tags: Crimes against humanity, Human Rights, Kachin Independence Army, Military Engagement, PSLF/TNLA News and Information Department, Shan State

This post is in: Press Release

Press Statement as Myanmar Tatmadaw (MT) has Come to Target Ta’ang Civilians

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