Growing Fear in Muse as TNLA-Burma Army Conflict Escalates
By Network Media Group
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Muse residents are living in fear of intermittent violence between the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Burma army since July. Locals are concerned that the conflict may be escalating after the Military Council started deploying additional troops to the township in northern Shan State, located along the Chinese border.
Villagers from Mang Kang, Mong Hsert, and Nam Kert fled the fighting in Sel Lant village-tract on 29 August when two locals were injured by gunshot wounds in Sel Lant village, and several homes were destroyed. On 10 September, after the fighting had stopped, the villagers returned home, but fighting flared up again a week later.
A man who withheld his name for security reasons said the TNLA clashed intermittently with troops from the Military Council from 9 am to 5 pm in the village of Weing Nang, between Sel Lant village-tract and Muse town on Sunday, 17 September. At the same time, the regime shelled the village from a hilltop camp. He wasn’t aware of casualties on either side.
TNLA soldiers still maintain their stronghold on a hill overlooking Sel Lant village. The fighting started after ground forces from the Burma army attempted to seize the camp.
“TNLA soldiers are on the hill and not in the village. The Burma army soldiers are staying in the village,” another anonymous local source explained. He said they could hear the sounds of artillery shells being fired until Monday. The man thinks as many as 60 soldiers are staying in the Mong Hsert Buddhist monastery in the village, sharing the same name.
The TNLA has reported clashing with the troops from the Burma army 40 times in northern Shan State between 23 July and 15 September.
