Thousands in western Myanmar flee as army plans operations–VIDEO

Less than a four-hour flight from Thailand, people began fleeing from Rathedaung Township and making their way to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar since Saturday.

Thousands of villagers have fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state after a local administrator warned dozens of village leaders that the army planned “clearance operations” against insurgents, a lawmaker, and a humanitarian group said.

The warning to the village leaders came in a letter written on Wednesday, which was confirmed by Reuters and verified by a state government minister, Colonel Min Than.

The letter, signed by the administrator of Rathedaung township, Aung Myint Thein, told village leaders he had been informed the operations were planned in the township’s Kyauktan village and nearby areas suspected of harboring insurgents.

The letter does not specify where the order came from, but Min Than, Rakhine state’s border affairs and security minister, told Reuters it was an instruction from his border affairs ministry, one of three Myanmar government ministries controlled by the army.

The United Nations said in a statement on Sunday it was concerned by intense fighting in Kyauktan, including reports people were trapped and houses damaged. It called on all parties to “respect international humanitarian law, fulfil their responsibilities and take urgent measures to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure”.

On Saturday, the British, Australian, US and Canadian embassies in Myanmar said they were “deeply concerned by the reports of the Myanmar Military’s clearance operations along the Kyauktan village tract” and “the worsening humanitarian and security situation across the region.”

“We are aware of the historic impacts of such operations disproportionately affecting civilians,” the statement said. It called on “all armed actors to exercise restraint while in areas inhabited by local communities, some of whom may not, by no fault of their own, be able to seek refuge elsewhere.”

In anticipation of the new operation, Min Than said 80 people had fled Kyauktan to elsewhere in Rathedaung township and that the army had prepared shelter and food.

Zaw Zaw Htun, the secretary of the Rakhine Ethnic Congress, a humanitarian group, said at least 1,700 had fled to the neighboring Ponnagyun township.

Another 1,400 are sheltering in a nearby village and are in dire need of food and other supplies, said regional parliamentarian Oo Than Naing from Rathedaung township.

Journalists are barred from most of Rakhine state, and the government has imposed an internet shutdown on most of the region, making information difficult to verify.

Source: Thousands in western Myanmar flee as army plans operations: monitors

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