Last week, Burma Army (BA) arrested Nguen Nel Thang, tied up the 55-year-old, and burned him alive in a house in Omyae Htoo, Kalay Township, during fierce fighting with civilian resistance groups that started after the military launched a clearance campaign and Chin State.
The Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) cremated his remains according to Chin Christian traditions.
A couple of days later, the BA arrested Maung Laromaw, 24, and also tied him up and burned him alive in a house in the same town, according to Chinland Defence Force (CDF) chapter for the Kalay, Kabaw and Gangaw area, who gave him a Christian funeral.
According to CNDF, in the first week of December, the junta’s force BA raided Sin, Kyar Min and Omyae Htoo villages east of Myit Tha River in Sagaing Region where they killed the two men, burned at least eight houses and forced many residents to flee.
In Thangtlang, the military has destroyed over a third of the houses since it attacked the town in northern Chin State on 18 September after clashes with the local CDF chapter. Of the 1,500 houses in the town, the junta’s forces have shelled and set fire to about 530 houses in 11 attacks, according to the Thangtlang CDF spokesperson. All 10,000 residents have fled to the Indian border or other areas.
“We have evidence that the soldiers deliberately set fire to civilians’ houses when they entered the town,” he said, explaining that they captured it with their drone. BA also destroyed Church on the Rock, Presbyterian Church, Thangtlang Centenary Baptist Church and United Pentecostal Church, as well as St Nicholas Catholic Church.
According to Thangtlang Placement Affairs Committee, 19 houses were destroyed on 18 September, 164 on 29 October, 278 from 6 to 29 November and 57 from 4 to 5 December, mainly in the town’s Zung Mung, Lon Tial, Zay, Seik Pyo Yay and Phaya Kyawng wards.
BA soldiers currently camped in Thangtlang are subject to regular attacks from CDF.
On Tuesday morning, CDF killed two BA soldiers and injured another in fighting that broke out in the centre of Kanpetlet town in the south. The spokesperson told Khonumthung News that they ambushed a BA column and engaged in an exchange of fire for an hour, forcing the army to retreat. He said no one on his side was injured.
Fighting has been recurring in the town since late last month. CDF reported that four BA soldiers were killed in an attack on their camp in a high school from 3 to 4 December, and on 28 November three were killed in the downtown.
Khonumthung News could not independently confirm any of this information.