More houses burned in military-occupied Thantlang this week, with well over a quarter of the Chin State town’s buildings now destroyed in 12 incidents since the junta launched a major attack there in September, the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) said.
Arson attacks and artillery fire by junta forces have now destroyed 548 of the towns’ roughly 2,000 houses, as well as four churches and a high school, the group said.
Thantlang’s entire 10,000 strong population fled after shelling began on September 18. As fires began to spread, soldiers shot and killed a pastor who was trying to extinguish the flames, before cutting off one of his fingers.
On Wednesday, 18 houses burned in the town’s Zon Mon ward at around 2pm, and another five were torched in Phayarkyang ward at around 6:30pm, according to the CDF.
A 90-minute clash broke out between the CDF and junta soldiers at around 3pm the same day. There were casualties on both sides but the CDF said it was unable to give details.
“We lost some people from our side as well but we still can’t even collect their bodies, so we still cannot tell you much,” said the Thantlang CDF spokesperson.
Chin World Media reported that three CDF soldiers died in the clash.
The Chinland Joint Defence Committee (CJDC), a recently formed coalition of local resistance forces, said the military had burned another 38 houses in Thantlang on Sunday and had been deliberately burning empty buildings in the abandoned town for months.
“There wasn’t even a clash that day. The military has been torching the houses on purpose,” he said.
The Thantlang CDF spokesperson said the arson attacks were both a form of retaliation for ambushes against the military by resistance fighters, and could also be a way of making it more difficult for CDF fighters to hide inside buildings in the town.
Salai Htet Ni, the spokesperson for the Chin National Front (CNF), told Chin World on Tuesday that Thantlang is close to CNF command, and that the military was trying to destroy the town to prevent the CNF from sending reinforcements or getting support from the town’s residents.
The CDF had been preparing to “drive out” the military and was monitoring the junta forces very closely, he said.
“We’re not just standing there and doing nothing. Because this is such an important matter, we are preparing our strategy,” he said.
