Villagers affected by the prolonged conflict at Mindat Township are at risk of running out of food and medicine if fighting between a civilian resistance group and the military, which resumed in July, continues in southern Chin State.
“The villagers are struggling,” said a man from an internally displaced persons (IDPs) committee in the township. He said they and religious groups are helping some of them, but if there is no solution soon, they will have no food in two months.
The Burma Army (BA) caused the crisis by restricting supplies to the township during the fighting with the Mindat chapter of the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), he said.
The conflict ended in Mindat after the BA captured the mountain town, but fighting still continues in the countryside, with soldiers destroying houses and churches and stealing people’s property after villagers fled into the jungle.
“In Vumthu, soldiers destroyed rice, other food items and the property in every house in the village,” another source told Khonumthung News.
According to the IDP committee, there are about 6,000 IDPs in Mindat Township. Some have fled into the jungle, while others have relocated to 80 other villages.
After the fighting intensified in late April, BA offered a peace dialogue with CDF, with town elders and religious leaders from Mindat town acting as mediators. Both sides agreed to stop fighting and continue negotiations.
The peace agreement brokered between the military council and CDF (at the time CDF in Mindat was called Mindat People’s Administration) expired May 12 after the military council refused to release all the youth it had arrested. On May 13, the military council imposed martial law, besieged the town and eventually expelled most of the residents.
The military sent waves of troops in dozens of helicopters to Mindat and shelled the positions of CDF. After the army used human shields and allowed its troops to enter the town, the civilian resistance group retreated into the jungle.
According to CDF, there were 20 clashes from May 15 to June 15. A second temporary ceasefire was negotiated from June 20 to July 4, which was extended to the 16th. But on the 21st, fighting returned to the township.