Sit-tat Attacks Villages In Restive Sagaing Region
By Network Media Group
Monday, June 19, 2023
The sit-tat set fire to 13 villages after three military columns arrived in Kantbalu District in Sagaing Region the same day, forcing residents to flee.
An anonymous male source said one of the columns was Light Infantry Battalion 361, the second was from Kyun Hla and the third from Kantbalu.
In Shan Kon, Burma army soldiers burnt down four houses and a building where residents stored their rice on 14 June. A few days earlier, the sit-tat soldiers and Pyusawhtee People’s Militia Force (PMF) burnt down five houses in the village.
Kyar Takan, Htan Pin Kon, Pint Tha, Chaung Kyar, Hpalar Ya, Innma, Nagar Paw, Oak Khin, Hin Phyu Taw, Pin Tae, Ingyin Su and Ingyin Myaing were also targeted.
The man said over 50,000 people were displaced from the district last month when the sit-tat and PMF attacked 17 villages. 30,000 of them are still fleeing, while 20,000 have returned to their homes.
“They hid in the jungle for a day or two and returned to their villages after the Burma army column left,” while others have remained in the jungle camps. These people are in desperate need of tarpaulins and basic food items such as rice, cooking oil and salt, as well as medicines, he said. At least six people were bitten by poisonous snakes in Koe Htawng Bo, Chat Thinn and Htan Kon village tracts in the last month.
