HURFOM: Junta troops have looted and destroyed homes in Thayetchaung (Lower Village), Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, after launching a major operation into the now-empty village, where they immediately began destroying property, looting homes, and stealing valuables, according to local residents.
On 19 November, at around 11 a.m., a junta column of more than 100 soldiers entered Thayetchaung (Lower Village) and ransacked over 50 houses belonging to internally displaced people. “Most of the families had already left because of the fighting, so the houses were empty,” said a 50-year-old male villager who had remained hiding near the village. “The soldiers broke the doors, searched everything, and took whatever valuables they could find. What they didn’t want, they destroyed. Many houses are badly damaged. Because they arrest people on sight, almost all the men from the village have fled. The soldiers just take what they want.”
Residents also reported that on 18 November, when the same column advanced into the area around Thayetchaung (Lower Village) and Seik Chaung Village, five local men from Seik Chaung were arrested and taken away. As of now, their families have received no information about their whereabouts or condition, and they have not been released.
Local people say the destruction and losses in Thayetchaung (Lower Village) cannot yet be fully assessed because the junta column is still active in the area, and villagers do not dare to return. The same column reportedly burned houses in Thein Kone Village and Katwe Village in Thayetchaung Township during the second week of November.
Since military columns began operating more intensively in Thayetchaung Township in October, more than ten thousand residents have fled their homes and are now living in displacement and great hardship. Those assisting the displaced say people urgently need food, shelter, materials, and humanitarian support as junta operations continue to target villages, homes, and anyone who remains behind.
