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Over 300 villagers flee from MOMC.7 offensive in Pegu Division

HURFOM: Pegu: Over 300 villagers have fled from assaults issued by a military column under the leadership of Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No. 7 in Kyaukkyi Township, Pegu Division.

According a HURFOM field reporter in the area. MOMC No. 7’s military column No. 1 began a fresh offensive against Karen National Union (KNU) battalions in the region around Kyuakkyi’s Singa village, a Karen settlement comprised of 70 household. After the battalion began shooting villagers on sight on March 5^th of this year, suspecting them of being KNU soldiers, a large portion of the village’s population fled to the safety of the surrounding jungle, where they report that they are living without sufficient food or medical care.

According to a Karen National Libration Army (KNLA) captain who asked that his name be withheld, “the SPDC’s [State Peace and Development Council] column No. 1, under the command of MOMC no. 7 which is based in Kyaukkyi, started actions in Singa village in early March. On March 5th, Column No.1 troops started shooting inside the village with heavy weapons at 2:00 PM.  As a result, about 314 villagers have left their homes [by the third week of March] and are hiding in the jungle. “

KNU sources reported to HURFOM that the villagers are afraid to return to Singa village to access their food supplies, and currently are suffering from a dramatic lack of food supplies in their refuge in the jungle. Most Singa villagers own beetle nut farms and durian fruit orchards; the area contains roughly 117 farms. Fleeing to the safety of the jungle means that they have had to abandon their crops.

A Singa villager named Saw Ru Bee (not his real name), 54 years old, told HURFOM’s reporter, “The military troops have already commanded to the villagers that if they see the villager in either the jungle or on their farms, they will shoot them immediately [on suspicion of being KNU soldiers].  In the past, they have already shot four of our villagers because they mistook them [for KNU soldiers].  The villagers do not dare to live in the village because the troops always make trouble for them, if they see the villagers in the village.  I think, now they have already burned our home down.”

“In the last three months, our family has already fled [from Burmese military battalions into the jungle] three times, including this time. I feel very sad for my children.  They don’t understand what is happening.”  he added.

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