Mizzima
Communities in southeast Myanmar desperately need urgent relief, including medicine and food and the most vulnerable, especially women and children, are in a fragile situation and their overall well-being is at risk, according to the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM).
Along with local communities, HURFOM is “calling for local voices and solutions to be amplified as the junta’s horrendous atrocity crimes continue to be perpetrated with impunity.”
According to HURFOM’s weekly report on the situation in southeast Myanmar most of the villagers from villages on the west side of Yebyu Township, where the military junta often launches its operations, moved to other areas because they did not dare to stay in their villages.
The military junta entered the west bank of Yebyu twice in October 2023 burning 29 houses in five villages and shooting seven residents dead. After the incidents, more people moved to the Na Buu Lal area on the west bank and the towns around it: “We’re always listening to the news. Many people have moved, but it has increased obviously,” said a man living there. Last month, in November, most of the inhabitants of Pa Ra Dud, Muu Duu, Ba War village, and Ba War coastal villages fled, mainly to Dawei.
Other incidents include that of a young man, 28-year-old Karen Saw Saung Hnin Htoo Phaw, who was arrested at the front entrance checkpoint of Dawei City on 25 July 2023. The military junta court sentenced him to ten years in prison after he was detained for more than four months. His family has received hardly any information about his case.
A friend of Saw Saung Hnin Htoo Phaw said that he was charged with Section 52(a) and 50(j) of the Anti-Terrorism Act for the information found on his mobile phone, which is yet another area where the junta has tried to exert control over people, according to HURFOM.
Saw Saung Hnin Htoo Phaw holds a degree in computer technology from Dawei Computer University and works as a gardener with his parents, according to Kyauk Mee Laung village residents.
There are around 400 political prisoners in Dawei Prison, some of whom have been sentenced and others who have been charged, the majority for anti-terrorism offences. but not yet sentence.
