Civilians recount fierce attack on Red Cross convoy
LASHIO: Civilians fleeing bloody clashes between troops and ethnic rebels in northeast Myanmar yesterday described crouching in terror as a hail of bullets flew around them in an attack on a local aid convoy that wounded two people.
About a hundred people came under fire as they travelled in Myanmar Red Cross Society trucks in a desperate dash from their homes in Kokang region in Shan state, which has been consumed by deadly fighting.
Myanmar has declared a state of emergency in the region in response to the conflict that has caused tens of thousands to flee their homes, mainly across the border into China — sparking alarm in Beijing.
“It was a miracle we weren’t hit. We were crouched low in the truck. The driver was hit and there was so much blood,” Maung Ying said in the Shan town of Lashio after Tuesday’s attack on aid vehicles, which were marked with Red Cross flags and said to be the first such attack on the organisation in the country.
“They were shooting from the mountains on both sides of the road. I thought I was going to die. Bullets were passing just over our heads,” he said, adding the ordeal in broad daylight lasted for an hour.
The 35-year-old said he had been working in a sugar cane plantation north of the region’s main town Laukkai, which has become the epicentre for fierce fighting since rebel attacks launched last week.
The convoy had passed the town and was heading south when the assault happened, with dramatic pictures from the incident showing journalists who were travelling with the trucks helping to carry the wounded as they came under fire.
It was unclear who was responsible for the attack.
The convoy was organised by a local aid group separate from the better known International Committee of the Red Cross.
The chief of Lashio police, San Yu, said one person sustained a gunshot wound to the stomach, while another had suffered cuts to his eye from broken glass.
The attack was the latest to target civilians in the area, after a Lashio official said another truck came under fire on Tuesday morning, killing one civilian and leaving another wounded.
On the Chinese side, Beijing says it has stepped up border controls after some 30,000 fled into its Yunnan province. It called on all parties to prevent a further escalation of fighting.
Clashes between the army and ethnically Chinese Kokang, which flared on Feb 9, have killed dozens of soldiers and rebels. There is no official civilian death toll. The Kokang rebels, known as the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army, blame the army for the conflict.