Myanmar’s military is shifting its strategy in the country’s southern Tanintharyi region, where it is battling dozens of ethnic armies and armed resistance groups, to lean on local fighters and isolate its opposition, according to residents and local defense forces.
Junta artillery shelling killed five civilians, including three children, in central Myanmar, according to residents.
Myanmar’s junta issued prison sentences to 20 people, including four minors, residents told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. Most of the accused were sentenced under acts of terrorism in northern Myanmar.
Five Myanmar nationals on Wednesday asked the Philippines’ Department of Justice to open a war crimes investigation into 10 members of the Burmese junta for a range of alleged atrocities, including the killing of civilians, mutilation of bodies and torching hundreds of homes and churches.
Myanmar’s military regime sentenced seven men in Ayeyarwady region to death, Pyapon township residents told Radio Free Asia over the weekend. Pyapon District Court issued the sentences on Friday, ordering another seven men to spend up to 55 years in prison in the country’s southern delta.
Two activists were sentenced to heavy prison terms after participating in anti-regime activities, sources close to the families told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
The junta is increasing quotas this week for villagers to undergo military training in Ayeyarwaddy division, locals told Radio Free Asia. In some villages in Pathein township, six people per village must now enroll.
Villagers found six bodies after an attack in Sagaing region’s Yinmarbin township, residents told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.
Flooding in Myanmar has caused chaos across five regions, according to junta authorities, with 13,000 people in Bago region alone being relocated due to heavy rain.
Myanmar’s junta killed a man as a convoy of troops moving through Sagaing region continued to raid villages and abduct residents, locals told Radio Free Asia Friday.