Life has become extremely difficult for large numbers of villagers in northern Shan State since Burma's military launched an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on April 10th. The attacks have been focused on parts of northern Shan State and southern Kachin State close to the Chinese border, and have involved more than 1,000 troops from the Burmese army’s “Light Infantry Division 88” (LID 88) according to a Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) released on June 5th.
Burmese army troops “fired hundreds of shells to drive out the KIA in the populated Shan farming area of Tung Loi Ho Hsur west of Namkham. The shelling caused civilian injuries and damaged temples, houses, vehicles, and other property. Burmese army troops also entered villages, looted food and livestock, and set fire to farmers’ crops, which caused well over 1,000 Shan villagers from about 15 villages to flee to neighboring towns in northern Shan State, as well as into China,” said the SHRF report.
According to SHRF, most of the Shan villagers returned home after about a week but there is still a heavy military presence in the area, and this remains a major source of concern. “Since the April offensive military security around Namkham has been tightened, with several incidents of Burmese troops shooting at innocent civilians. Five villagers have been shot and injured by soldiers guarding the Chinese gas pipeline west of Namkham,” SHRF reported.
One such incident occurred on May 29th, when soldiers from LID 88 opened fire and threw a grenade at a motorbike carrying a Shan villager and his wife near a military checkpoint close to Namkham, according to SHRF. The women, Ms. A Htay from Nam Jarng Village, died as a result of her injuries the following day.
