Three weeks of fierce fighting between junta troops and ethnic Karenni forces in eastern Myanmar has killed at least 35 civilians, including three children, a national human rights group and local residents said.
Karenni militias have been fighting the army for decades in their campaign for greater autonomy in Kayah and Shan states, but the conflict has worsened in recent months when the Burmese army attacks fighters from the People’s Defense Forces. who have risen up in arms against the army since the 2021 coup.
The two sides have been engaged in an armed conflict in Moebye Township, also known as Mongpai, in the southern Shan state since May 25.
Among the deceased were more than 20 men and 10, 10 women, as well as three children ages eight, 13 and 18, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group.
Banyar, executive director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, said the victims were killed by heavy artillery or caught on fire when caught in the middle of the fighting.
“They were killed in the town of Moebye, hit by heavy artillery or shot dead,” Banyar, the group’s chief executive, told Radio Free Asia on Monday. “Some of them were arrested before being killed. Some were shot. Some died when they were shelled by heavy artillery.”
The organization collected 12 bodies and buried them during the first week of June, although some bodies still cannot be collected for security reasons, Banyar said.
The latest round of civilian deaths comes as the army intensifies attacks on its adversaries in the southern Shan and Kayah townships of Moebye, Pinlaung and Pekon.
Junta forces have carried out airstrikes and heavy artillery assaults on areas where fighters from the Karenni Progressive People’s Force, or PKPF, a local branch of the anti-regime People’s Defense Forces, are believed to be killing civilians in the process.
Relief workers have had difficulty helping the wounded and collecting bodies because junta troops are everywhere in Moebye, arresting and killing locals, aid worker Nwe Oo said.
“I heard that there are injured people in the Si Kar and Done Tu Htan neighborhoods in the city, but because we haven’t had a chance to go inside, we haven’t been able to get them out,” he said. “We have to be very attentive because the fighting has been intense and complicated.”
artillery fire
To make matters worse, junta forces have blocked some roads in Moebye and kept a main thoroughfare open for pedestrian use, he said.
A Moebye resident, who declined to be named for security reasons, said military troops fired heavy artillery into residential areas.
“We heard exchanges of gunfire and non-stop artillery fire last night,” he said, estimating that around 450 junta soldiers have been stationed in high-rise buildings, schools and residences.
The resident said three members of a friend’s family were killed at the scene by heavy artillery while hiding in a bomb shelter.
“Because phone communication has not been reliable, there is no way we can get out of the city,” he said.
The board has yet to issue a statement on the situation at Moebye. RFA was unable to reach Shan State finance minister Khun Thein Maung, a spokesman for the junta, for comment.
A PKPF official told RFA that there have been casualties on both sides in the fighting and that some civilians are still trapped in it.
There have been heavy casualties among members of the People’s Defense Forces and Karenni Nationalities Defense Forces, an armed insurgent group formed after the 2021 military coup, and among junta troops who have been firing heavy artillery without stop, the official said.
“Some civilians have been trapped in the city,” he said. “Some people have taken refuge in the monastery because they thought they would be safe there. We heard that some of them managed to slip out of the city, but we don’t know exactly how they escaped.”
More than 50 civilians, including 13 children under the age of 18, were killed in Moebye between February 2021, when the military seized power from the elected government, and this June 12, according to PKPF figures.
Moebye has a population of about 30,000 people. Some residents remain in around three of the municipality’s 10 districts, while the rest have fled the fighting.
Translated by Myo Min Aung for FRG Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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