More than 3,000 people have fled Hakha town and the surrounding villages, fearing fighting will intensify after the Burma Army (BA) sent many troops to the region ahead of its clearance campaign against Chin resistance groups. “It’s unsafe for people to live in the town. They’re afraid that the violence will escalate, so they’ve fled for safety,” a man helping people in the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in Hakha Township told Khonumthung News. Since mid-September, the army has shelled Hakha town almost every night. They’ve destroyed people’s homes with artillery fire and soldiers have fired their rifles at residents,…
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Tatmadaw soldiers, part of one of several large convoys travelling across Chin State in advance of major offensives against Chin resistance, burnt down eight houses in Falam Township after spending the night in an abandoned village. According to a villager from Taal, the military also raided the houses of people who’d fled the approaching convoy in northern Chin State before the soldiers left on Tuesday 26 October. They took food, blankets, furniture, rice cookers and livestock. Last week, the military had destroyed three houses during an earlier stop in the village, he told Khonumthung News. The residents fled a fortnight…
At least four Tatmadaw soldiers were killed and ten wounded during fighting with the Chin resistance in Hakha Township, according to the Chin National Front (CNF). CNF spokesperson Salai Htet Ni told Khonumthung News that the CNF and the Chinland Defence Force ambushed the Burma Army (BA) convoy near Chung Cung village on 21 October. “The military convoy came from Falam and our troops attacked the last vehicle,” he said, explaining that due to their superior position and the fact that they ambushed it, none of their men perished. The Tatmadaw convoy of 80 military vehicles, including tanks, started its…
“The meanings of the prophecy (of Revelation) and what is fulfilled in reality according to the prophecy is what I am making known to the churches, worldwide, today.” Beginning with Chairman Lee Man-hee’s audacious declaration, a round of weekly seminars titled, “Testimony on Prophecy and Fulfillment of Revelation, God’s New Covenant,” from October 18th to December 27th is currently being held by Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. Regarding the purpose of the seminars on Revelation as a book of the Bible that prophesied about the future of the Christian world with apocalyptic warnings…
Civilians displaced by the conflict in Kanpetlet Township will run out of food in just over a month. According to a representative of a committee helping the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in southern Chin State, most of them buy their rice with the money they earn from growing a type of yam called elephant foot. But this year they have no savings because Burma Army (BA) offensives and fighting with civilian resistance groups have prevented them from working on their farms. And if their situation doesn’t improve, everyone will soon have nothing to eat. “Some people have already run out…
The Tatmadaw burnt churches and more than 20 houses in villages while sending troops and equipment from Falam to Hakha. This came amid a major military build-up in northern Chin State, which observers fear will soon turn into a bloodbath as the regime seeks to quell Chin resistance in the region. According to one villager, as soon as they arrived in New Thlanrawn on 14 October, the soldiers began burning houses, where they remained for five days. The Thlanrawn Emergency Response Committee (TERC) said the army burnt down 13 houses in the village. In Rialti, they destroyed all but one…
Burma Army (BA) offensives in northern Chin State has displaced over 2,000 people from 7 villages along the road from Falam to Hakha townships. The soldiers have burnt down many peoples’ homes while attacking their villages with artillery fire. In some cases, soldiers are staying in their homes after they fled into the jungle. A man from Falam town who’s helping the civilians told Khonumthung News that all the residents of Thlanrawn, Taal and Rialti have fled and that the military has burnt down all the houses in Rialti. The other villages are Lungpi, Zalai, Tlangzar and ‘new’ Thlanrawn. “They…
Burma’s State Administration Council (SAC) released 22 people from Chin State prisons on Wednesday, joining thousands released nationwide this week. All of the prisoners in the state were detained for protesting against the military after it overthrew the country’s democratic government nearly nine months ago. Five of the seven people released in the town of Matupi had to sign a letter pledging to stay in their homes and not meet with other youths. Authorities had arrested them in early April. According to a local source, six people are still in prison. In the state capital Hakha 11 were released, in…
Chin resistance groups attacked a Tatmadaw column after the soldiers stopped at Thlan Rawn village after traveling from Falam Township in northern Chin State. Pu Htet Ni, the Chin National Front/Chin National Army spokesman, told Khonumthung News that his soldiers and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) attacked the column for 30 minutes at around 11 am on Thursday 14 October as it was heading towards Hakha. “After we attacked them, Burma Army soldiers (BA) fired 122-mm mortars at us from Falam town and we retreated,” he said. He said no one was injured, but he couldn’t say if any BA…
Clashes broke out this week between Chin resistance groups and the military near the capital of Chin State—the latest episode in the bloody conflict that began in May to topple the military regime and return Burma to democracy. On Wednesday, the Chin National Front (CNF), the armed wing of the Chin National Front, and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) killed five Burma Army (BA) soldiers in Nariya Lawngtha near Hakha town, CNF spokesperson Pu Htet Ni said. No one on their side was killed in the morning clashes, he said. The military immediately retaliated by firing artillery shells from its…