LOIKAW (UCAN): Thousands of villagers have fled their homes as the military in Myanmar escalated attacks as the United Nations Security Council heard reports from special envoys on the country’s civil war on March 13.
Reports were presented by Noeleen Heyzer, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy on Myanmar, and Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s foreign minister and head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations office of the special envoy on Myanmar.
The new flare-up between the army and the rebel groups has prompted thousands of villagers in Demoso township in predominantly Christian Kayah State, the mountainous region bordering Thailand, to take shelter in relatives’ homes and in forests, according to local sources.
They said that at least 3,000 people had fled their homes since March 10 when the fighting increased.
“We heard artillery shelling and gunfire and saw many fleeing villagers taking refuge in relatives’ homes,” a local resident from Loikaw, who requested anonymity, recounted.
Many churches and convents in the Diocese of Loikaw are currently serving as shelter camps for hundreds of internally displaced persons.
Fighting has continued on the border between Kayah State and southern Shan State since late February.
More than 150,000 civilians have been forced to seek shelter in churches, makeshift camps, and in the jungle, according to aid groups.
At least nine churches have been hit, with 16 out of 38 parishes severely affected since the civil war started following the coup in February 2021 [Sunday Examiner, 7 February 2021].
For the first time, in December last year, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling on the military to put an end to violence and allow unhindered humanitarian assistance to uprooted persons.
In February, the junta extended the state of emergency for an additional six months in 40 townships across a number of states and regions. More than 3,000 people have lost their lives in a brutal military crackdown and over 20,000 have been detained since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
Human rights groups have accused the ruling military of extrajudicial killings, torture, and wrongful imprisonment.
Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said, “The UN special envoy and Indonesian foreign minister should make clear to Security Council members that the junta’s killings, torture, unlawful arrests, and war crimes demand more targeted action.”
In a March 13 statement Charbonneau said, “Cutting off the junta’s supply of money and weapons is a critical next step.”
