Thousands of civilians fleeing Laukkai Town remain stranded at the entrances of northern Shan State’s administrative capital Lashio since the junta’s military blocked them from entering the town on Wednesday, residents of the town and those fleeing to it say.
When the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army started facilitating the exodus of migrant workers from Laukkai on Sunday, the junta’s military officers in Lashio did not prevent them from entering Lashio or even check or question them first.
They were allowed into the town from 6 am to 6 pm.
Everything changed on Wednesday. Junta troops closed all routes used by people fleeing Laukkai to enter Lashio.
They did not say why, but residents of Lashio and those trying to enter the town told The Irrawaddy that the town was blocked for security reasons.
“The military allows only those who are the residents of Lashio Township to enter the town,” a volunteer helping people fleeing Laukkai near a village on the outskirts of Lashio said. “Most of the people [fleeing Laukkai] are migrant workers from different regions [of Myanmar] so they do not have relatives to help them enter the town,” the volunteer explained.
Today, thousands of people trying to enter Lashio remained stranded outside the town at three locations: Asia World tollgate on Lashio Bypass Road, Asia World tollgate near Hopeik Village on the Lashio–Mong Yaw Road, and another tollgate on a narrow road near the base of Infantry Battalion 68.
Most hail from Magwe, Mandalay, Yangon, and Sagaing regions and are unfamiliar with the area, according to interviews by The Irrawaddy and volunteers helping the thousands of people fleeing Laukkai.
They include the elderly, pregnant women and infants. They have been sleeping on roads without blankets since Wednesday night. Although residents of Lashio and volunteers are giving them as much as they can afford, they still face shortages of food and other necessities.
A 28-year-old woman trying to return to her home in a village in Mandalay’s Meiktila Township said: “The monasteries in villages nearby and villagers are giving us space to sleep [and] are providing food, but because there are thousands of people, we are facing troubles.”
Thousands of people have not been able to sleep since they fled Laukkai, she said.
They just want to go home, but the buses that will take them there are in Lashio so they need to enter the town to get home, she explained.
“The military is preventing us from entering the town. What should we do? Should we continue walking [all the way to] our homes?” she asked.
While regime troops are preventing thousands of people fleeing for their safety from entering Lashio, those who were able to get in earlier this week face different obstacles.
There are no more rooms left at hotels and guesthouses. Even monasteries have no more space. Moreover, junta troops are shaking down people fleeing for safety and stealing the cash – mostly Chinese yuan – that they earned in Laukkai over months and years.
“They check our backpacks, luggage, and wallets and if they find yuan, they just take it and say we are illegals,” a man robbed by junta troops said.
At the entrance gate near the base of Light Infantry Battalion 68, troops fired live rounds into the sky and ordered crowds to disperse this morning, people trying to get home said.
“At the entrance on Lashio Bypass Road near the Asia World tollgate, the G1 [General Staff Officer] of the military slapped some men in the crowd while he was dispersing it with his troops this afternoon. The people [dispersed] were just sitting on the road near the gate,” a volunteer based in Lashio said.
Lashio is the base of the junta’s Northeastern Command. The junta faced a direct threat to Lashio in the early days of the offensive known as Operation 1027. Launched by the Brotherhood Alliance on October 27, the offensive led to the loss of some junta positions east of Lashio.
