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Weekly update on Human Rights situation in Karen, Mon States & Tanintharyi Region since the attempted coup [Third week of February 2022]

HURFOM: A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi region.

Weekly Overview

Karen State

• On the bridge in Kaw Kyaik Village, Hpa-an Township, a group of junta security troops blocked the War-Sue Iron Bridge and forcibly stopped travellers. Young people were targeted and arrested.
• At least five civilians were accused of supporting PDFs and NUG. Their homes and properties have been seized by the junta GAD since February 16, according to the reporters in Kawkareik Township.
• Residents say at least four villages, with an estimated more than 1,000 IDPs, have been fleeing to the deeper Brigade 4 areas of the KNU.

Mon State

• The junta GAD seized the home and properties of former Upper House NLD MP Daw Thiri Yadanar on February 18, in Beelin. Daw Thiri Yadanar was accused of allegedly being linked to the NUG since December 2021.
• Aung Phone Kyaw, a fourth-year student at Moulmein Technological University in Mon State, was sentenced to life in prison by the junta military on February 15.

Dawei Region

• Two social workers from Kanpauk Village, in Yephyu Township, were arbitrarily abducted by the junta forces. 
• Two university students who were arrested for donating money to war-affected refugees have been sentenced to seven years in prison each.

Analysis

Civilian safety in Burma has increasingly worsened as the junta barrages innocent people with seemingly endless attacks on their rights and freedoms. Armed conflict between the military junta and local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) have continued in Dawei which led to over 1000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Displaced populations have been forced to flee to neighboring mountains and forests where they lack sufficient access to food, shelter, medicine and other reliable means of survival.

In Karen State, approximately 40 homes were destroyed from artillery shells fired by the junta during clashes. Civilians have been deliberately targeted, including one woman who was killed from shelling launched from the base of 97th Infantry Battalion in Kamai-Kone village, Kawkareik Township. Approximately 20 houses in Kamai-Kone village were damaged when nearly 30 rounds of artillery shells were fired from the artillery barracks, said a villager who talked to a HURFOM reporter. Due to indiscriminate firing, villagers decided to flee. Saw Kyaw Phoe, a resident of Kamai-Kone village, was seriously injured when artillery shells exploded in the yard of a house while locals were preparing to escape, killing his wife Naw Phu Tin, page 48. In Dawei, civilians were also struck and killed by artillery. 

Arbitrary arrests are ongoing and as HURFOM has documented in the past, the junta soldiers tend to explicitly target young people. In addition, charges by the regime are becoming increasingly petty. On 18 February, two university students from Dawei Township who were arrested for donating money to war-affected refugees, have been sentenced to seven years in prison each under Section 52 (b) of the Anti-Terrorism Law. Supporting humanitarian causes is not a crime, and yet the regime, who lacks compassion and the ability to provide aid, is punishing innocent civilians attempting to do their part. HURFOM calls for the release of all political prisoners arbitrarily detained. 

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