Shan CBOs: Over 3000 IDPs in central Shan State threatened with death for trying to return home
Over 3,000 displaced
civilians in central Shan State are fearful of returning to their villages after
receiving death threats from the Burma Army, according to a statement released
by a coalition of Shan community-based organizations (CBOs) today.
Since clashes between the Burma Army and the Shan State Progress
Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N) broke out in early October and
continued into early December, more than 10,000 civilians in Mong Hsu, Mong Nong,
and Kesi Townships have fled their homes.
“Government
troops are continuing to loot and destroy local property and food stocks, and
are persecuting displaced villagers attempting to return home,” the statement
read.
The CBOs reported that in Mong Hsu Township alone, more than 1,000 acres of crops have been
destroyed and more than two hundreds houses have been looted and damaged.
Additionally, 13 rice mills were also destroyed and nearly 4,000 livestock have
been killed or lost.
Burma Army
and the SSPP/SSA-N soldiers remain in the area, despite an agreement between
the groups to stop fighting and withdraw.
“Without sustained international pressure,
Naypyidaw will feel free to continue its aggressive expansion into ethnic
territories,” said Shan human rights activist Nang Charm Tong, a spokesperson
for the coalition of CBOs that penned today’s statement.
Sai Tun Aye,
a candidate for Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) in Mong Hsu
Township, expressed concern for sustained militarization in the area.
“Neither
side has withdrawn their troops yet. They are still stationed in an area where
they are in view of each other,” he said.
Yesterday, the Shan Human Rights
Foundation (SHRF) also released a statement accusing the Burma Army of forcing civilians to accompany them as guides, porters
or human shields, a practice which has been widely documented throughout
Burma’s long-running civil war. The
statement also alleged that the Burma Army still had troops stationed in
conflict areas, had destroyed property and made land inhabitable.
“Troops from over 14
battalions have camped in and around local villages, dug bunkers, laid land mines,
and shot at villagers trying to return to harvest their fields,” read the
statement.
On December
15, SHAN reported that villagers from Koon Nim village, south of Mong Hsu, were
forced by the Burma Army to return to IDP camps after they attempted to go back
to their homes.
BY SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for
News (S.H.A.N)
Tags: Human Rights, News
