Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

September 25, 2023

HURFOM | Week Three, September 2023

As September 2023 nears an end, the brutality of the Burma Army is ongoing. Thousands of civilians remain displaced and living in uncertainty of whether or not they will survive to the next day. The junta only knows war, and their violent strategies have deprived innocent people of their humanity. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) is concerned that despite these horrible circumstances, the international community and various United Nations bodies continue to engage with the regime. As HURFOM noted on International Peace Day, the military junta is not a partner in peace.

Since August 2023, the number of people abducted by an unidentified armed group in Launglon Township has increased to seven people in two months, and there has been no news of them until now, according to the people close to those who have been taken away from by the regime.

On September 14, two young men over the age of 20 from Inn Zauk village in Launglon Township were also arrested by an unknown armed group. They are members of the Inn Zauk Village Funeral Charity Group. The two victims are Ko Tauk Tauk and Ko Aung Naing Shein. It was reported that when Ko Tauk Tauk returned from work around 5:30 in the evening, while he was buying betel nuts, three armed men hit him on the ear and took him away on a motorcycle.

In the second week of August, 40-year-old U Thein Soe, 80-year-old U Hla Shwe from Inn Zauk village in Launglon Township, five people, including Ma Wa Wa, a Waidee villager, were arrested by unidentified armed men. According to local sources, the five victims have not been released, and there is no new information about them.

Destruction of property, in particular the devastation of homes, is a tactic that the junta continues to deploy. Since noon of September 16, the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) and the military junta troops both fired repeatedly in Lakku village. According to locals, the Burma Army shot and killed four civilians in Pyin Phyu village in Pulaw Township and destroyed their homes.

On September 16, those who were killed were 69-year-old U Ba Kyin, his son 40-year-old U Ngwe Soe, his daughter, 37-year-old Daw Kalama, and his niece, 40-year-old Daw Yi Win. U Ba Kyin’s home in Pyin Phyu village, his son U Ngwe Soe’s home and his niece, Daw Yi Win’s home in the Lakku village tract, was also burned down.

“So many people are missing. There is also no phone line connection. Was the line cut off? There are many injured people, “said a Lakku villager fleeing the conflict.

Most of the villagers of Lakku, Myaw Kyaung, and Pyin Phyu villages have to flee; some villagers are trapped in the village, some villagers are missing, and the people who have fled the clash need help.

On September 17, the military junta soldiers returned to Lakku village through the seaside village of Pyin Phyu village. What followed was an intense battle between the two sides. Lakku village is being attacked with artillery weapons and small arms and using land and waterways by the junta forces.

These attacks are ongoing because of the protection granted to the military junta by ASEAN and regional leaders who are complicit in committing crimes. This includes people from countries like Russia, India, China, and Singapore who provide weapons to the terrorist regime. These weapons are then used on women, children, and innocent people. A global arms embargo and sanctions on aviation fuel must be urgently implemented.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under Analysis, News