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Rumors of another attack on police station cause worry

HURFOM: A week after the Taung Kalay Police Station, Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State was attacked, occupied and destroyed by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defense Force (PDF), a rumor is now circulating that another attack may occur. This time the target  could be the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station.

“We’ve started hearing the rumor on November 23. After that, we dare not go to our plantation. The rubber plantation workers witnessed aircraft flying in the sky. We don’t even go outside after 8 pm,” said a villager from Mya Gone village which is located near the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station.

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Monthly Overview:
Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region | November 2022

Destruction of Property Rampant in Southeastern Burma, Ongoing Offensives Undermine Civilian Safety and Security

With 2022 coming to an end, Burma’s human rights landscape remains fractured due to the Burma Army’s constant attacks. The targeting of the civilian population has been deliberate. Patterns of their systematic and widespread atrocities are evident through airstrikes and ground attacks intentionally deployed in areas without active conflict. Their acts are part of a broader strategy by the junta to replace the support of the opposition movement with fear.

However, even nearly two years after the attempted coup, the power of the people remains unstoppable. Protests are ongoing and calls for the immediate dismantling and delegitimizing of the junta have not slowed. The bravery of human rights defenders persists even amidst moments of great uncertainty. Decades of military rule and economic turmoil have left Burma in shambles as a new generation refuses to allow a new generation to inherit the junta’s devastating policies and failure to adhere to basic human rights norms and principles.

Throughout November, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) observed an increase in the number of homes the Burma Army deliberately destroyed. Extortion of local possessions and houses is being done systematically across the country. Junta forces threatened to burn villagers’ homes and launch airstrikes following any attack that injured or killed their soldiers. The junta routinely attacks villages near mix-controlled areas in Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State. These villages are controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU) and the junta.

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Construction of Mon National College begins in December

HURFOM: December 26, 2022 is the golden jubilee of the Mon National Education Committee (MNEC) and the date will coincide with the ground breaking construction of the Mon National College.

The college will be located  in the  Nyi Sar Region which is controlled by the New Mon State Party (NMSP). 

“The learning process must continue. It’s good to finish construction as quick as

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region
Fourth Week of November 2022

HURFOM: During the last week of November 2022 in Southeastern Burma, civilians were met with more devastation, fear and havoc by the military junta. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has continued to document human rights violations in Mon State, Karen State and the Tanintharyi region. Civilians are being increasingly targeted as the Burma Army acts with no moral consciousness or concept of consequences. Soldiers lack humanity and an understanding of basic human rights norms, laws, and principles. Consequently, civilians are forced to face brutal assaults. Women, children, and the elderly are not sparred, nor are sacred sites such as religious places of worship (monasteries, churches, etc.).

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On November 19, beginning at 5 AM, an estimated 120 junta soldiers from the Costal Regiment Command, based along the Dawei to Htee-Khee highway motorway, indiscriminately fired several mortar shells at the village located beside the highway. Due to these cruel armed attacks launched by the Junta forces, at least two villagers were injured, and more than ten houses were destroyed, according to sources on the ground.

Hundreds of villagers from three villages located in the areas, such as the village from Thingan-Ton, Wa Kone, and Leik-Kyae-Pyaung, were forced to flee the artillery attacks. Villagers said that in Wakone, the Burma Army ransacked the road with artillery weapons and occupied the areas.

One villager described the scene as ‘bullets falling like rainfall.” They continued, “It seems like the junta troops attempted to fire everywhere because they believed that the soldiers of the People’s Defense Forces were located in our villages.” Two young men, Myo Nyunt and Ko Myo, working on betel nut plantations near Wakone village, were hit by artillery shells and injured in their backs and neck. 

A resident from Leik-Kyae-Pyaung village said that the junta forces opened fire with heavy weapons, entered their village, broke the ownerless houses, raided at least ten places, and stole food and clothes. Only two weeks ago, more than 30 houses in Wakone village were broken down, and their belongings and materials were stolen.

Young people are being subjected to ongoing arrests, and unlawful detainment as the Burma Army carries out its campaign of fear and terror. Since November 19, eight youths have been abducted in a series of raids and search operations of suspected organizers of the ongoing silence strikes by the junta forces in Dawei District.

Family members of those arrested complained that because they captured the suspects without specific information, irrelevant people were affected. On November 20, Ma Khin Lay Nwe, a young woman, age 26, was arrested by the military intelligence and police forces. Her family maintains her innocence, saying she has opened a beauty shop in her home. A witness, age 30, told HURFOM in light of all the arrests, he suspects the military has not been successful in finding those responsible for planning and organizing the silence strikes. HURFOM confirmed that those who were forcibly arrested are still being detained at the Long Lon police station. Families believed these young detainees were tortured by the polices and jail authorities while interrogated.

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The junta has also not hesitated to shoot with intent to kill. On 20 November, around 2 PM in Long Lon township, the Burma Army was inspecting pedestrians in front of the Public Hospital in Long Lon, when they opened fire on two young men on a motorcycle. One of them was seriously injured in his back. The other was caught and arrested. In that incident, the junta forces shot at two other innocent teenagers walking on the road. The two victims are siblings from Tha-byar Village; residents stated that 15-year-old Maung Wei Yan Aung died from a gunshot wound at the hospital.

 These attacks are further evidence of the impunity of the military junta.

Two killed, ten injured, and 2,000 flee due to armed clash in Taung Kalay

HURFOM: On November 21, 2022, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) attacked the Taung Kalay Police Station in Taung Kalay village, located in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State.

The Light Infantry Battalion #208 was based in the police station.

In response to the attack, the military junta launched air assaults targeting the Taung Kalay village. In addition, the Artillery Battalion in A-Bit village, based in Mudon Township used heavy weapons targeting locations nearby the police station.

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Security forces harass and verbally abuse women at checkpoints in Kan Bauk

HURFOM: Since the February 2021 coup, the military junta has increasingly established checkpoints in the Kan Bauk region of Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division.  Security forces have routinely been harassing and verbally abusing women who  cross these checkpoints, local sources. 

The security forces stop women and ask for their phone numbers and Facebook accounts details, and they also verbally abuse them.

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Burmese military arrested villagers and use them to serve as porters

HURFOM: On November 15, 2022, there was a major armed clash between the Burmese military and the combined units of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defense Force (PDF) near Lut Shan village, Kyarinnseikyi Township, Karen State.

After the incident, the military arrested rubber plantation workers and forced them to serve as porters, according to a local source.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region
Third Week of November 2022

HURFOM: Across the last week of November, civilians in Myanmar, particularly Southeastern Burma, were met with more violence and lawlessness perpetrated by the military junta. Soldiers who adhere to commands to assault civilians and disregard their fundamental freedoms are complicit in the demise of prospects for democracy in the country. Victims of the military’s brutal offensives know that there cannot be peace as long as weapons threaten their survival. 

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Junta tightens security and extorts workers in Hnit Karen and Wel Kha Mi

HURFOM: Since early November, 2022, armed clashes between the Burmese military and the People Defense Forces (PDF) have happened nearly everyday in the Hnit Karen and Wel Kha Mi villages, located in Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State.

The military junta has tightened its security presence in the area and built a police base and a checkpoint in Wel Kha Mi village.

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Junta kills individual for failure to stop at Chaung Hna Khwa Bridge Gate checkpoint

HURFOM: On November 12, 2022, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) jointly attacked, occupied and destroyed the police station in Chaung Hna Khwa village, located in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State.

The military junta immediately banned use of the Chaung Hna Bridge leading into the village.  However,  the next day, November 13, the junta allowed people to use the bridge again.

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