They are still hiding in the forest as the regime’s soldiers continue their rampage in the area after a series of deadly shootouts with civilian resistance forces.
At least 16 soldiers were killed during a series of firefights with anti-regime civilian fighters on Thursday and Friday. Following the shootouts, the soldiers raided villages in search of the resistance fighters, causing people to flee their homes.
Tension between the junta troops and the civilian resistance force continued on Saturday. As a result, residents of Kin, Upper Kin and Michaungtwin villages and several others nearby villages between Chindwin River in the east and the Kani-Monywa road in the west are unable to return to their homes.
As of Saturday, those civilians are still hiding in nearby forests. Among the nearly 13,000 displaced people are elderly persons, sick people, pregnant women and children. All need medicine and food due to their hasty evacuation, according to some of the villagers in hiding.
Ko Saw, a resident from Upper Kin village in northern Kani, said his whole village—about a thousand people—fled from their homes Thursday afternoon and many of them have only the clothes on their backs.
“The military troops are deployed in our village, and we are hearing more troops are coming to reinforce. We are still hiding in the jungle, and no one dares to go back yet,” he said.
The man, in his 30s, said he has never faced such a situation and been displaced in his life and pledged the support of his villagers.
On Saturday, the regime’s forces rampaged through the deserted villages in the area. Following the shootouts, they had stationed themselves in some villages. They forcibly entered some homes, looting whatever cash they could find and stealing chickens and pigs while arresting people who remained, according to residents.
A Kani resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said at least 17 people from Zee Pin Twin village, including three teachers who have been striking as part of the civil disobedience movement, were taken by the soldiers on Saturday.
The abductions occurred after some 60 soldiers entered the village, shooting randomly. Zee Pin Twin village is located in the southern part of Kani Township.
The resident said the civilians from different villages have been forced to hide and run from one place to another within Kani for more than a month.
Ko Win, a relief worker from Monywa, said at least eight village tracts, including Kin and Chaung Ma villages, are being affected because of the civilian shootouts with the junta forces.
In Sagaing Region’s Kani, Yinmabin, Kalay (Kale) and Tamu townships, the armed resistance began in late March and locals have taken up traditional homemade percussion lock firearms to counter the military after peaceful protesters were killed by junta forces.
During the fighting, both sides suffered casualties.
The Irrawaddy
• The Irrawaddy 8 May 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/thousands-in-hiding-need-help-as-myanmar-regimes-forces-rampage-through-villages.html
Myanmar Junta Suspends Over 1,600 Educators for Refusing to Work
The military regime has suspended at least 1,683 striking educators and administrative staff members of 15 universities from their duties.
Following the Feb. 1 coup, many civil servants in the country have been on strike as they are unhappy with the takeover, saying they can’t work under military rule.
The regime ordered doctorate, master’s degree and final-year bachelor’s degree classes to reopen on May 5 nationwide, and educators and administrative staff to return to work by May 3, asking university authorities to report the list of absentees.
Among those suspended from their duties are professors, associate professors and administrative staff. Notices signed by concerned rectors say they were suspended from their duties due to unauthorized absence.
According to the lists acquired by The Irrawaddy, a total of 339 educators and administrative staff were suspended at Yangon University, 392 at Mandalay University of Arts and Science, 149 at Mandalay University of Foreign Languages, 60 at Myitkyina Technological University, 72 at Taungoo Technological University, 137 at Yangon University of Education, and 45 at Myanmar Maritime University.
Other institutions affected include universities of Computer Studies in Pathein and Taungoo, Sittwe University, Maubin University, and technological universities in Taunggyi, Hpa-an, Pathein and Kengtung.
These figures represent only those The Irrawaddy could verify, and the actual number of those who were suspended could be much higher.
“Whatever happens, we will continue to engage in the civil disobedience movement until the end. We have to resist because we can’t leave our future generations under military rule,” said a striking assistant lecturer of Yangon University who has been charged with incitement by the regime.
Teachers are happy to be and take pride in being suspended from their duties for joining the CDM, he said, and striking educators who have not yet been included in suspension lists are even concerned that they will be mistaken as for supporters of the regime by the public.
The military regime’s push to reopen universities and schools is facing growing resistance, with anti-regime protesters calling for an education boycott as part of the nationwide CDM against the junta. Educators say the resistance is a sign that the coup is failing.
Facing a shortage of educators, the military regime is recruiting lecturers, and is planning to give promotions to non-CDM professors to replace striking rectors and deputy rectors, said the striking educators.
Meanwhile, it is also putting pressure on striking government employees including educators and health workers to return to work by prosecuting them for incitement and arresting their relatives.
The Irrawaddy
• The Irrawaddy 8 May 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-suspends-over-1600-educators-for-refusing-to-work.html
Civilian Resistance Forces Kill at Least 16 of Myanmar Junta’s Troops
At least 16 military troops were reportedly killed and several were wounded during a series of shootouts with civilian resistance forces of Kani Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday and Friday, according to local residents.
On Friday, about five shootouts between junta troops and civilian resistance forces of Kani Township occurred when the troops, vowing retribution, conducted searches for civilian forces who had attacked the troops on May 6.
A member of civilian resistance force of Kani told The Irrawaddy that three shootouts occurred in the forest along the Monywa-Kalaywa highway on Friday. Two more shootouts occurred at Kyauklonegyi Mountain near Chaung Ma village and at a forest near Thaminchan village in the township.
During the shootouts, junta troops used heavy explosives, making use of drones to locate the civilian forces.
In the shootouts at Kyauklonegyi Mountain, at least eight military troops were killed and several were wounded. About seven members of the civilian resistance force were killed, the source told The Irrawaddy.
In Thursday’s clashes, about eight military troops and two villagers who fought back against the junta’s force were reportedly killed, according to local residents.
However, The Irrawaddy was not able to confirm the casualities of both sides independently.
“We will keep fighting them until our elected civilian government returns,” a member of Kani’s civilian resistance force said.
In a military regime press conference Friday concerning the armed resistance in Chin State and Sagaing Region, Major Kaung Htet San told the media that the military will not tolerate any armed resistance on the part of the people.
“Since we also don’t tolerate any criminal activities, we will wipe them out by all means [necessary] as we are supposed to do,” the major said.
Taking up homemade percussion lock firearms, more than two hundred of the civilian resistance forces from several villages also conducted defensive actions against more than 50 military reinforcements travelling on vessels in the Chindwin River near the Upper Kin village on Thursday afternoon, according to residents.
The military reinforcements reached the area after their two vessels carrying explosive chemicals became stranded on a sandbank near the village after being attacked by resistance forces.
Local residents said that resistance forces managed to destroy some explosive materials by throwing them in the river.
During hours-long shootouts, two members from the resistance forces and two military troops were reportedly killed, according to the residents. After the shootouts, the military troops have been deployed at the Upper Kin Village since Thursday evening.
Due to the raid, around three thousands of villagers from Kin, Upper Kin and Michaungtwin villages fled their homes on Thursday evening.
A resident of Upper Kin village told The Irrawaddy that several hundred villagers, including children and elderly people, are now living in the forest. They have only the clothes on their backs since they had to flee their homes urgently due to the shootouts.
Deserted street of Kin village after people fled their homes due to fighting nearby.
“Now we are worried about food for tomorrow. We are also concerned for our children including infants that they would contract malaria in the forests. We have no medicine,” the villager said.
On Thursday morning, a shootout between resistance forces and military troops travelling with vehicles took place along on Monywa- Kalaywa highway near the Chaung Ma village in the township.
During the shootout, two military troops were killed and a military vehicle was burned, a resident told the media.
Military-run newspapers also said that two military troops were injured when 30 “armed rioters,” a military euphemism for civilian resistance forces, attacked troops travelling in the Chindwin river near Ketaung Village in Kani Township about 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.
On April 15, at least six civilians also were killed near the Chaung Ma village in the township during a shootout between the junta’s forces and a civilian protection group formed by anti-regime protesters.
The shootout came after the regime forces detained more than 70 protesters, including leading members of the protest committee in Kani Township.
Also, villagers of Chaung Ma had to flee their homes since military troops had deployed in the village following the shootout.
In several townships of Sagaing, Magwe regions and Chin State, people are resisting the junta troops by taking up the homemade percussion lock firearms and slingshots.
The Irrawaddy
• The Irrawaddy 7 May 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/civilian-resistance-forces-kill-at-least-16-of-myanmar-juntas-troops.html