Weekly Analysis: Increasing Use of Drone Attacks by the Military Junta Raises Alarm in Local Communities

March 24, 2025

Due to the junta’s extensive losses on the battlefield, the terrorist military junta is turning to other forms of attacks, primarily from the air. Their dependence on advanced weaponry and surveillance from countries like China, India, and Russia has been devastating for local communities who are the regime’s targets. In specific areas noted by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi Region, civilians are being maimed by drone strikes carried out by the junta.

The military in Mon State has intensified its drone attacks on villages in Kyaikhto Township despite no active clashes in the area. These targeted strikes have led to civilian injuries, the destruction of homes and public infrastructure, and significant damage to livelihoods, including farms and businesses.

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Weekly Analysis: Landmines Post Life-Threatening Risks to Conflict-Affected Communities in Southeastern Burma

March 17, 2025

Over the last week in targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, including Mon State, Karen State and the Tanintharyi Region, civilians faced immense risks and threats to their lives due to landmines. The military junta deliberately places and hides landmines and unexploded ordnance devices in civilian areas to instill fear and uncertainty.

Many who accidentally step do so while on their way to work or tend to their harvests. The explosions have injured and killed men, women and children. Survival rates are low, and treatment is costly and painful. Further, survivors face additional barriers in earning an income and fleeing during attacks by the junta.

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Weekly Analysis: Displaced Villagers Unable to Return Home in Conflict-Torn Mon State

March 10, 2025

Throughout targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi Region, attacks by the junta have been forcing civilians to flee. 

Despite no active fighting around Kyone Long (Old) village in Ye Township, Mon State, junta troops remain stationed in the area, preventing 456 displaced villagers from returning to their homes. Junta soldiers have set up camp at a monastery in Eye Poke village, creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity for those who fled.

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Weekly Analysis: Airstrikes Wreak Havoc and Terror Across Southeastern Burma

February 24, 2025

February 2025 | Week Three

Over the past week, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) documented several instances of junta-deployed airstrikes in our targeted areas of Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region. According to a statement from the Karen National Union (KNU) Central, junta forces bombed three villages in Kyaikhto and Bilin Townships, Mon State, on February 13, despite the absence of ongoing clashes. The airstrikes resulted in three fatalities and ten injuries. On the same day, three 500-pound bombs were dropped on Pain Nae Kone and Kaw Kat villages in Kyaikhto Township, as well as Ta Gay Laung Chaung Phyar village in Bilin Township.

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Weekly Analysis: Young Men Increasingly Targeted in the Junta’s Illegal Forced Conscription Effort

February 17, 2025

February 2025 | Week Two

HURFOM: The military junta has lost significant gains and territory. Their response to their failing military strategy has been to increase airstrikes, which target civilians and have killed more than 107 people in January alone. The junta has also moved to increasing their abductions and arbitrary arrests of young men across the country, who are then forcibly enlisted and recruited into the regime without their consent.

In targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the junta’s grasp for control is evident in its forced recruitment tactics. For instance, the military has started conducting mandatory military training for university lecturers, teachers, and students at Mawlamyine University in Mon State as part of its broader conscription efforts.

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Weekly Analysis: Women and Children Killed in Escalating Attacks by the Military Junta

February 10, 2025

Across Burma, civilians are facing ongoing threats to their safety and security. Women, children, and the elderly are particularly vulnerable, and the escalating offensives and attacks by the junta put them at greater risk. In targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, several incidents of assaults by the junta were reported this week, resulting in the deaths and injuries of multiple women and children.

In Ye Township, Mon State, three women, including two internally displaced persons (IDPs), were injured when junta troops indiscriminately fired heavy artillery into Wapathae Village, Baelamu Village Tract, despite no active fighting in the area. On the night of January 24, troops from the Junta’s Artillery Regiment No. 317, based in Ye Township, launched five artillery shells into Wapathae Village. The shells exploded inside the village, injuring:

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Weekly Analysis: Drone Attacks and Artillery Shelling Target Civilians in Southeastern Burma

January 27, 2025

Civilians in Burma have been forced to endure endless attacks by the military junta. Communities that have long been affected by the junta’s atrocities are living in constant fear. In targeted areas of Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has documented debilitating circumstances that continue to threaten and undermine the safety of local people.

The junta’s ongoing artillery shelling and drone strikes in Kyaik Hto and Bilin townships, Mon State, have left residents living in constant fear. Since the second week of January 2025, the intensified attacks have caused injuries, destroyed homes, and forced villagers to either flee or seek protection in makeshift bomb shelters.

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

January 20, 2025

Landmines Pose Growing Risk to the Safety and Security of Civilians in Southeastern Burma

Landmine detonations have caused deaths and injuries for many civilians in Burma. They are hidden and are often discovered before it is too late, causing extreme pain and trauma to victims. Since the attempted coup, there has been a significant rise in landmine incidents in Burma. According to UNICEF, 32% of landmine casualties in early 2024 were children.

In target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the presence of landmines has hindered civilian livelihoods and daily lives.

On January 1st, a displaced man from Chaung Hna Pauk village, Tenasserim Township, attempted to return home but was killed by a landmine explosion. The victim, 40-year-old U Zaw Min, and another unknown villager were walking towards their village when they stepped on a landmine.  The body of U Zaw Min was cremated on January 2nd, 2025.

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Weekly Analysis: Mon State Junta Releases Prisoners on Independence Day, But Political Detainee Numbers Remain Low

January 13, 2025

Week One January 2025

On January 4, 2025, to mark the country’s Independence Day, the junta announced the release of prisoners from various prisons across the nation. The military claimed to have released more than 600 political prisoners. However, these figures, which the Political Prisoners Network Myanmar has verified, show that only about 340 were freed, which is indicative of the thousands who remain unjustly imprisoned. The amnesty serves as a reminder of the junta’s desperate quest for legitimacy while it continues to perpetrate widespread and systematic human rights violations.

While the junta tries to mislead the international community, reports from human rights organizations are furnishing vital evidence of the regime’s human rights violations. In a report released by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 95 civilians, including over a dozen minors, were killed by the Burma Army in December 2024 alone. Airstrikes were the primary cause of fatalities, as aerial attacks are increasingly endangering civilians.

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Weekly Analysis: Arbitrary Arrests and Enforced Disappearances on the Rise as Junta Targets Locals

December 23, 2024

HURFOM: The military junta uses arbitrary arrests as a tool to exert fear over innocent civilians. Since the attempted coup, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has documented those arrested and unlawfully detained by the junta in targeted areas of Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region. In addition to arbitrary arrests, the military is also regularly detaining villagers who are not heard from again by their families.
 
The military junta detained the owner of a six-wheeled Canter truck allegedly used by the Ye Township resistance force (Ye Balu group) during their attack on the administrator of Ayu Taung village, according to the vehicle owner’s family and close contacts.

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