Christian churches in Hakha Township recommended for their congregations not to hold Christmas events this year due to the threat of political violence in Chin State during the regime’s military offensive, which aims to crush civilian resistance groups but also targets everyone else. With so many Christians in Chin State, Christmas is an important holiday and its unusual for religious leaders to advise people not to gather for prayers in churches in the town of Hakha, the capital of Chin State, or hold other events to mark Jesus Christ’s birthday on 25 December. “We are especially concerned about people’s safety…
Author: Editor
The military destroyed nearly 100 houses in Thangtlang during the ninth raid on the town in northern Chin State, already empty of residents who fled to other villages or to the Indian border during the first attack in late September. According to a civilian committee working to help the town’s displaced residents, the Burma Army (BA) destroyed 96 houses and St Nicolas Church on Saturday 27 November. Shells hit Zung Mung, Seik Pyo Yay and Lungtial wards with fires continuing until the next day. The army destroyed more than 350 of Thangtlang’s 2,000 houses during attacks on the town that…
Soldiers from the Burma Army (BA) gang-raped a 27-year-old mother from a village in Chin State’s Tedim Township and made the woman’s husband watch them before raping her pregnant sister-in-law. According to the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) for Kalay, Kabaw and Gangaw, the soldiers from Battalion 22 raped the woman in her home in Aklui on 11 November. She had given birth only a month and a half ago. “Three soldiers entered her house around 11pm. They pointed a gun at her husband’s head and beat him on the head before making him crawl into the bathroom. After that, the…
The junta’s forces have launched more attacks on Thangtlang in northern Chin State after already destroying hundreds of homes, forcing local residents to flee to other villages along and across the Indian border. According to the spokesperson for the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), a civilian resistance group that took up arms against the regime in May, the Burma Army destroyed 20 more houses in the town on Thursday 11 November. Most of them were in Seikpyo Yay Ward, but three houses were demolished in Lon Tial, near the army’s camp set up in September. The town’s 10,000 residents fled when…
During the junta’s Anawrahta offensive in Chin State, which it named after the first Bamar king who ruled from 1044-77 AD, the Chin resistance claimed to kill many soldiers during at least nine clashes that took place over the weekend with junta troops. The regime has already moved thousands of troops and weapons into Chin State to crush resistance groups after they inflicted many causalities against the Burma Army (BA) since taking up arms in May. Salai Htet Ni, spokesperson for the Chin National Front (CNF), whose armed wing, the Chin National Army (CNA), fights alongside the Chinland Defence Forces…
The family of a Chin man arrested a month ago had no choice but to hold his funeral without his body when the Burma Army refused to return the 24-year-old’s remains after announcing his death in custody. Pu Rual Cung was arrested by the armed forces on 11 October while on his way to his farm near Neyan Lawnhtar, a village about 3 miles from Hakha, in northern Chin State. His family received no information about his whereabouts until the military called them on 9 November to inform them of his death. A family friend told Khonumthung News that fighting…
The junta’s armed forces extort money from motorists travelling between Kalay in Sagaing Region and the Indian border in Chin State. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source told Khonumthung News that he was forced to pay a bribe of 5,000 kyat ($3) at each of the six checkpoints between Kalay and Rihkhawdar. ”This is too much for us,” the man said. After civilian resistance groups such as the People’s Defence Force (Zoland) and the Chinland Defence Force for Kalay and Gangaw attacked a police station and checkpoint in Khai Kam, between Chin State and Sagaing Region, killing five officers,…
The Chin National Defence Force and the Kalay People’s Defence Force (PDF) attacked the Burma Army’s (BA) Kyauk Kwe Set camp located near Pan Moon Chaung Bridge in Kalay Township for three hours on 3 November. The civilian resistance groups also ambushed a BA convoy transporting reinforcements between Si Tha and Nat Myaung villages with landmines, later firing small and heavy weapons at the soldiers. According to the PDF, the bodies of 47 BA soldiers were taken to the morgue of the military hospital in Kalay town after the clashes, while the resistance fighters suffered no casualties. The junta troops…
Resistance groups in southern Chin State killed 3 Burma Army (BA) soldiers and wounded 8 others in a revenge raid after the military torched many houses in Thangtlang town last week. “We decided to attack them in response to Thangtlang,” Chinland Defence Force (CDF) spokesperson Yaw Mang told Khonumthung News, explaining that a 30-minute firefight ensued in which one resistance fighter was injured following the ambush in Mindat on 31 October. After the battle ended, the BA dragged away its fallen soldiers. Locals reported that the BA attacked a church and a person’s house at the Si Chel Junction where…
The army imposed martial law and banned the sale of rice in Mindat town in a desperate attempt to starve out the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) based in the township of the same name after suffering heavy casualties in ambushes by the Chin fighters. Those who want to take rice must get permission from the Burma Army (BA) Infantry Battalion IB-274 by submitting an application to a General Development Administration officer in the hill town in southern Chin State. A senior citizen said they have to travel to Yaw in Magwe Region to get the rice and carry as much…