At least two shot dead at Monywa rally as soldiers abduct injured protesters

Another two severely injured protesters were among 20 taken by troops in Mon state, a resident said

Published on Apr 3, 2021

At least two were killed and several injured as the junta’s armed forces crushed a protest in the central town of Monywa on Saturday, according to locals and a rescue worker.

The troops attacked the demonstration from three directions: the intersection of Pyidaungsu and Arzarni roads, from Aung Thabyay road, and from Bo Tayza road, at around 9am on Saturday, locals said.

The deceased were 21 and 25 years old. Myanmar Now is withholding their names to prevent soldiers from locating and stealing their bodies before their funerals. Local media reported a third death but Myanmar Now was unable to verify it.

At least seven people were also shot and injured. Soldiers have abducted two of them who were severely wounded, a member of the rescue team in the Sagaing region town told Myanmar Now.

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“We are currently attending to five injured people. Two others who were injured were taken by the troops,” said the rescue worker, who asked not to be named.

One of those who died was a frontline protester on sentry duty. He was shot in the head near a sandbag barricade built by protesters on Bo Tayza road.

“There were two tiers of sandbag barricades,” the witness said. “He was covering himself behind the second tier… Parts of his brain were blown away and spattered the people beside him.”

On Friday the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said at least 550 people have died at the hands of the junta’s killers since the military seized power on February 1. Over 40 of them were children, according to the Save the Children.

In the Mon state town of Thaton on Saturday, about 200 members of the junta’s armed forces violently dispersed a crowd of about 100 protesters, according to locals.

Some 20 protesters, including two who were severely injured, were detained by soldiers. The two who were taken include a 50-year-old man who was shot in the chest and a young woman who was shot in the abdomen.

“They came and took the young woman while people were bringing her to the hospital,” a local resident said.

“They said they would take the injured to hospital but they’re not there yet. They were still driving around the town,” he added.

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Junta responds with airstrikes after KNU seizes military base on Thai-Myanmar border

The military’s Thaw Le Hta outpost is across the Salween River from Mae Sam Laep, a strategic port on the Thai border that has been used to send aid to IDPs

Myanmar Now

Published on Apr 27, 2021

The Karen National Union (KNU) announced on Tuesday morning that they had taken over a base belonging to the Myanmar military on the Thai border; hours later, the regime’s forces launched airstrikes against Karen villages in the area.

Early on Tuesday morning, Brigade 5 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)– the armed wing of the KNU– seized and then destroyed the regime base in the Thaw Le Hta area of Karen State’s Mutraw District, known in Burmese as Hpapun.

The base is located on the Salween River, opposite the Thai village of Mae Sam Laep in Mae Hong Son province.

Around seven Myanmar soldiers were seen fleeing during the raid by Karen forces, the Karen Information Center reported.

By around 1pm, the Myanmar army had launched airstrikes in near Dagwe village (Dagwin in Burmese), some 10 miles north of Thaw Le Hta, according to Padoh Mahn Mahn, the KNLA’s Brigade 5 spokesperson.

“Bombing the area near villages is very concerning for the residents living there,” Padoh Mahn Mahn told Myanmar Now.

There are also reports of Myanmar military airstrikes on the village of Bwa Der, also in Brigade 5.

Further details about the air attacks, including those regarding casualties and the numeber of people displaced, were not available at the time of reporting.

Mae Sam Laep is a strategic point along the Thai-Myanmar border regarding transportation and humanitarian aid delivery, with a river port from which supplies have been sent to internally displaced people (IDPs) in KNU-controlled areas.

In response to the fighting at Thaw Le Hta on Tuesday, Thai authorities evacuated hundreds of Thai villagers from Mae Sam Laep and closed the port.

Prior to the fighting on Tuesday, this stretch of the Thai-Myanmar border area along the Salween River had seen heightened military tension/

On April 23, Myanmar troops stationed across the river from another Thai village– Tha Hta Fung– fired “warning shots” above a civilian boat carrying Thai border patrol officers, the Bangkok Post reported. A Thai government official later described the incident as a “misunderstanding.”

However, another KNLA Brigade 5 spokesperson, Saw Kler Doh, told the Karen Information Center that Tuesday’s attacks on Thaw Le Hta were carried out in response to regime troops shooting at boats along the Salween River.

The offensive against the Thaw Le Hta military outpost marks the second time since the February 1 coup that the KNLA’s Brigade 5 has seized a junta base.

On March 27, they took over the army’s stronghold at Thee Mu Hta, killing at least five soldiers and taking at last eight prisoners.

The junta responded by launching airstrikes at the end of March at Karen villages in Mutraw District (Brigade 5) and in Brigade 3– in Hteepado, Nyaunglebin District, and Maetamat, Shwegyin Township, located in Bago Region.

These air attacks killed an estimated 14 civilians, wounded 40, and displaced tens of thousands, according to the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a local relief organisation.

Fighting between the KNU’s Brigade 1 and the regime’s armed forces also broke out in Thaton on the morning of April 23. One junta officer was reportedly killed in the fighting, but the number of total casualties could not be confirmed at the time of reporting.

FBR estimated that there were 24,000 IDPs in the territories controlled by the KNU’s Brigades 1, 3, and 5 in mid-April.

In and near the KNU’s Brigade 6 area– Dooplaya District, in Karen State– locals have reported that the junta’s troops have increased interrogation of and extortion of money from civilians on the roads.

Regime soldiers in Dooplaya also violently cracked down on a motorcycle protest on April 24 at Three Pagodas Pass, near the Thai border.

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Mandalay man dies after being shot in the back by regime troops

Soldiers occupied a local high school where the man lived in Maha Aungmyay Township’s Sein Pann ward, carrying out nightly raids and arrests in the area

Myanmar Now

Published on Apr 27, 2021

Caption: The body of street vendor Zaw Shein was taken to his home on Monday night (Supplied)

A local street vendor was killed by indiscriminate gunfire from regime troops in Mandalay’s Maha Aungmyay Township on Monday, an eyewitness told Myanmar Now.

Soldiers occupying a high school in Sein Pann ward opened fire in the area at around 7pm. Street vendor Zaw Shein was shot in the back with live ammunition when he went outside to see what was happening, according to the eyewitness.

Zaw Shein was in his 40s and sold fried rice. A volunteer rescue worker who helped bring him for treatment at a local clinic said he was pronounced dead soon after arrival.

“His condition was very critical even when he arrived. He’s now dead,” the rescue worker told Myanmar Now on Monday night.

The troops stationed at the high school have been carrying out nightly raids and arrests in Sein Pann ward, residents said.

The eyewitness to Zaw Shein’s shooting, also a resident of Sein Pann, said that the gunfire continued until around 8:30pm on Monday night.

Earlier that day, two people who were honking the horns of their motorbikes were shot by the troops. One was reportedly wounded in the leg, and the other in the arm.

“The one who was wounded in the leg was arrested with the injury. The other one who was injured in the arm, managed to flee,” an eyewitness to the shooting told Myanmar Now.

Soldiers also shot a 14-year-old girl in the hand when they opened fire in Chanmyatharzi Township on April 21. A monk was also shot in the back with rubber bullets after troops raided a monastery in Maha Aungmyay Township on the same night.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group that has been monitoring the junta’s violence, at least 753 civilians have been killed by the regime’s troops nationwide since the February 1 coup.

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Army major shoots captain in Meiktila, in latest instance of regime forces turning on each other

Two soldiers and one policeman were killed in three separate incidents over the weekend

Myanmar Now

Published on Apr 26, 2021

Caption: Captain Kaung Myat Thwin of Meikhila-based LID 99, seen here in plain clothes, was shot by a fellow army officer on April 25

An army captain is in hospital after being shot by a fellow officer in the Mandalay Region town of Meiktila on Sunday, according to local residents.

Major Wunna Htay of the army’s Meiktila-based Battalion 315 is currently in custody for shooting Captain Kaung Myat Thwin of Light Infantry Battalion 99, which is also based in Meiktila, sources told Myanmar Now.

The incident, which occurred in downtown Meiktila near the town’s police station 2, appeared to stem from an alcohol-fuelled dispute between the two men.

“Captain Kaung Myat Thwin is notorious here. He recently shot and killed a doctor in Wundwin,” said a local resident, referring to a town located about 30km northeast of Meiktila.

“He is also the one who arrested the chairperson of the Meiktila District Election Commission,” the local resident added.

It was unclear what started the dispute, but the incident has raised security concerns in the town, which is regarded as an army stronghold due to the large number of troops stationed there.

Meanwhile, there were at least two other clashes over the weekend involving regime forces who had turned on each other.

On Friday, a shootout between police and soldiers occurred in the Chin State capital of Hakha. Two soldiers were killed and a number of police were injured in the exchange of fire, local media reported.

In the Kayin State town of Kawkareik, a dispute on Sunday between a soldier and a policeman ended with both men shooting each other.

According to a report by DVB, the police officer died and the soldier was seriously injured in the shootout.