The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
19 killed in ethnic rebel attack in eastern Myanmar, officials say
Eighteen YANGON, MYANMAR — civilians and a policeman were killed in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State on Saturday when an ethnic armed group attacked a town, government spokesperson Zaw Htay told dpa.
Some 32 people, including 27 civilians, three policemen, and two local paramilitary forces were injured in the attack led by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, on Muse town, a major border crossing with China, he added.
Of the 18 civilians killed in the attack that began at 5 a.m., 16 were men and two were women, said Zaw Htay. He told dpa earlier that just 17 people were killed in the attack.
The TNLA claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on Facebook saying they were a response to recent Myanmar army offensives against another armed group, the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA.
The KIA, one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority armed groups, based in the mountains bordering China and India, has regularly clashed with the Myanmar army since a ceasefire broke down in 2011.
The country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, made ending Myanmar’s multiple civil wars, which have lasted for 70 years, a priority when her National League for Democracy won landslide elections in 2015, ending five decades of military rule.
Human rights groups on Saturday urged Myanmar to drop charges against activists protesting military offensives in Kachin State, which borders Shan State.
At least nine activists have been charged under Myanmar’s draconian Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, according to statements released by Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights after protests were organized in four cities across Myanmar in the past week.
Roughly 6,800 people in Kachin have been newly displaced since early April in clashes between the Myanmar army and the KIA, according to a statement by the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, issued Monday.
The KIA, one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority armed groups, based in the mountains bordering China and India, has regularly clashed with the Myanmar army since a ceasefire broke down in 2011.