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 base in Chauk Mile (six mile) village.
According to local sources, the soldiers also arrested four people from Nariya Lawngtha, including 13-year-old Maung Pen Ouk Thang, and stole a vehicle from the village.
Thousands of troops were sent to Chin State after Lt-Gen Than Hlaing was recently appointed as the new commander for Northwestern Regional Command, which controls Chin State and Sagaing and Magway regions. Previously, Than Hlaing was the regime’s deputy minister of home affairs and the chief of Burma’s Police Force.
With the deployment of so many soldiers in recent days, hostilities in the state are expected to intensify. Since the fighting started last May, Chin resistance groups have ambushed the BA, killing many soldiers.
On Wednesday, armed forces in the south re-arrested four Chin youth, a day after the Paletwa court found them not guilty.
“Police told their family that the police commander wanted to talk to them and told them they were being held in prison,” a man close to the family told Khonumthung News.
He said the police told them that senior officials had instructed them to arrest them again and they didn’t know why.
The authorities aren’t allowing the family to visit them in the jail.
Yar Kyaw, the director of the Agape Social Development Foundation, was arrested in May with the other youths and charged with incitement under Article 505 (a) for collecting donations for civilians displaced by fighting. The military recommended his release and he was released on 22 September. But unlike the others, he wasn’t re-arrested.
The detained youths, three of whom share the same name, are Aik Tun Min, a singer, Aik Tun Min, Aik Tun Min, an employee of the government’s forestry department, and Aung Tun Soe (aka Ah Luu).