A military column of 70 soldiers advancing from Bawlakhe to Dawtamagyi village tract in eastern Demoso Township reportedly abducted 14 people, including children, near a hill-side cultivation on 7 March as guides.
Although the regime soldiers later released two children, the other 11 men continued to be held, according to Khu Nye Reh, the ethnic Karenni government’s interior minister.
“I heard that a woman and a child were released. They said they were forced to lead the way to a water source and to locations of resistance fighters. They beat or punched them if they answer not quickly enough,” said Khu Nye Reh.
According to Karenni Army’s Karenni Military Information Center (KnMIC), the Myanmar Amy has been conducting “area clearance operations” in the eastern part of Demoso with three military columns – one from the Bawlakhe-based 429th Light Infantry Battalion, one from the 77th Light Infantry Division and another from Loikaw.
One of the regime’s columns advanced to Dawngaykhu village of Dawtamagyi village tract and clashed with combined forces of resistance fighters on 11 March.
On 10 March, three exchanges of fire occurred – one between advancing junta troops and resistance fighters in Dawse village, another between junta troops and a guerrilla force in the hills east of Dawtamyay village, and another, in which junta troops were ambushed in the eastern part of Dawngaykhu village, killing at least 16 junta soldiers, KnMIC said.
Also, on 9 March, military council soldiers shot at two residents of Dawse village with light weapons. One of them reportedly managed to escape, but still missing, according to KnMIC.
One KnMIC official urged internally displaced persons (IDPs) to be vigilant, although resistance forces are prepared to repel the military council forces.
“During regime’s military activities, people should be vigilant and observe the military situation. And they should pay attention to the warnings from the local defense forces when they issue them and try to calculate the possible dangers from fighting. If there is an armed clash nearby and the gunfire is loud, they should not go out into the streets, but instead stay in safer places. And, residents should not return to villages that are close to places where regime forces are making a military advance, said the KnMIC official.
Increased fighting since 9 March has led to the further displacement of about 5,000 people in eastern Demoso Township. The displacement is likely to increase, and people need food rations, said an official with the Karenni IDP Assistance Network.
“I think it will become a little more difficult to get food rations. There are already many IDPs, and some of them have been forced to flee again, about two or three times.”
In the eastern part of Demoso in Karenni State, fighting between military council troops and resistance forces has so far displaced up to 15,000 people.
Sent by the Kantarawaddy Times.