After the military regime announced that public schools must reopen next month, no students enrolled for classes in schools in Hakha and Thangtlang towns in Chin State. A parent in Thangtlang said their school was locked this Monday because no one came to register for classes scheduled to start June 1. There are two high schools, two middle schools and one primary school in town. “The education level in our country is the lowest among the countries in the region,” a parent from Hakha said. “Our children didn’t go to school last year because of COVID-19. And then the Burma…
Author: Editor
Almost the entire population of Mindat have fled the military siege by the Burma Army last week and now sheltering at several internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in the jungle in the township with the same name. “Everybody is scared” a volunteer explained after Burma Army fired 60 artillery shells and used a military helicopter to attack a civilian resistance group in the tiny town in southern Chin State last week. The violence and martial law, enacted around the same time, drove out ninety percent of the population. According to the source, there are only a few elders left in…
Chinland Defense Force (CDF) retreated from a southern Chin State town that it held off for days against the Burma Army on Saturday after the military sent waves of troops in dozens of helicopters, then overrunning the town with relentless artillery strikes, even stooping to the cowardly act of using human shields. An official from CDF in Mindat said when soldiers finally got through: “They broke the doors arresting any men inside the houses,” explaining why they had to flee to the jungle, leaving only the elderly, women and children. CDF said in a statement it retreated to avoid unnecessary…
Volunteer teams from Joseph Oxygen have been prevented from bringing people needing emergency medical care to the hospital after its rescue vehicles in Matupi town were seized by the Burma Army last month. “Some patients have died because they couldn’t make it to the hospital,” a local man told Khonumthung News. The military arrested Tun Lin Oo, chairperson of the organization, at 10 pm, April 7. Later that day, eight of its vehicles were seized. Van Nay Kein, who works with Joseph Oxygen in Matupi, was detained on April 29 and released the next day. Altogether, Burma Army arrested five…
Burma Army continued its assault on Mindat, firing at least 15 rounds into the southern Chin State town guarded by Chin Defense Force (CDF) on Saturday morning, May 15. The latest shelling comes after six helicopters arrived the same day, delivering fresh troops and weapons to the military’s Battalion-274. “They attacked Mindat town with artillery; shells landed near a pagoda and High School No-3. People are hiding in their homes,” a man from Mindat told Khonumthung News. A Burma Army unit is deployed in Na-Ta-La School west of town, and a military column is on route to a Four-mile Buddhist…
A man arrested by Burma’s military regime died while being transferred from Hakha to Kalay, Khonumthung News has learned. Burma Army grabbed Pu Tler Ling in his paddy field in Nua Chaung, Hakha Township on May 9. He reportedly died on his way to Kalay, located in Sagaing Region, where Burma Army was sending him for medical treatment. “I assume he died from serious wounds caused by armed forces torturing him in a detention camp,” a man from the Chin State capital told Khonumthung News. Pu Tler Ling’s body hasn’t yet been returned to his family. No one knows why…
No students attended classes at Hakha University in the Chin State capital on May 5 after the military council opened all universities and colleges across Burma for students in their final year. Dr. Lian Za Hkuk, the deputy rector of Hakha University, told Khonumthung News that teachers were ready to teach classes when it opened last week, but no pupils joined them. Some came to the school, he said, but they just hung around the campus. One hundred and twelve students are registered to complete their master’s or bachelor’s degree, the deputy rector explained. “All of the teachers joined the…
Armed forces arrested three people in Hakha to question them the day after fighting broke out between Chinland Defense Force (CDF) and Burma Army. An eyewitness heard 26 rounds fired and a bomb explosion during fighting at about 8:30 pm on May 4 in the Chin State capital. The civilian armed group exchanged fire with Burma Army at BOC Gate near Inn-Wa bank. According to CDF, at least one Burma Army soldier was killed, another was wounded. Khonumthung News was unable to independently confirm this information. Burma Army arrested two women and a man in a home in Myo Thit…
Two women were arrested by Burma Army soldiers who confiscated their motorbike in the town of Homalin, Sagaing Region, according to an eyewitness. “Soldiers arrested them when they were hiding in a bush,” a woman told Khonumthung News. She said the women are detained at Myoma Police Station in Homalin but couldn’t provide more information. Ma Cho Lwin, from Nawng Pakyit village and an unidentified woman were arrested the evening of May 2 after joining a protest against the junta in Homalin earlier in the day. Elders of the town are negotiating with police officers for their release. Armed forces…
Authorities in southern Chin State released seven youths following several days of violence between the Burma Army and a civilian defense group in Mindat. Seven people were arrested on April 24. At least some of them were detained for putting up posters condemning the junta in front of a statue of Gen Aung San. Fighting broke out when authorities refused to release them. Chinland Defense Force (CDF) ambushed a Burma Army military convoy at the Htin Chaung junction carrying reinforcement troops to Mindat from Kyauk Htu. In Mindat, gun battles broke out between the defense force and the military. The…