The military council has been forcing residents along the banks of the Sittaung River in Waw Township to provide security for their villages since the previous week and the residents are effectively being used as human shields, according to the People’s Defense Forces-Waw.
The regime had specifically ordered the administrators of Letpan, Myitkyoe, and Pin villages to call up one person per household to guard their villages along with police and members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia, the local PDF said.
“They have told villagers that they must take turns per household to guard the villages. If they refuse, they demand money from the villagers. They patrol the villages with police and Pyu Saw Htee members. We don’t know what the junta soldiers are doing there. In our experience, the regime’s soldiers definitely force villagers to act as human shields,” said a local PDF official.
The PDF official went on to say that the military council may have used the villagers as human shields because of the military checkpoint in Hpayarpyo village was attacked on 26 February, or because news circulated that Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) troops from Karen National Union (KNU) Brigades 1 and 5 and allied forces were planning to engage in fighting with regime troops in Bago in March, he added.
“The junta soldiers are also forcing Myitkyoe villagers to guard their village. They have armed members of the Pyu Saw Htee. But they don’t give weapons to the villagers,” a local told the Karen Information Center (KIC).
In addition, regime troops had abducted four locals as human shields when they entered Ingabo village in Kyaikto Township and later spread misinformation that these acts were committed by PDFs, PDF-Waw said.
Similarly, military council columns have entered villages in Shwegyin Township in Bago Region since 8 March and fired heavy weapons.
As a result, more than 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and are in need of food and other essentials, according to people helping the displaced.
Sent by KIC.