Residents of three coastal villages in Tanintharyi Region’s Pulaw Township say they have to choose between going hungry or going to jail after being trapped by intense fighting between junta and resistance troops for almost two weeks.
“About 1,000 people from Htamin Ma Sar, Lel Phet and Leik Thaung villages are trapped,” a resident of Htamin Ma Sar village said, adding: “Some residents from Htamin Ma Sar managed to flee, but residents of the two other villages are still trapped.”
“We will be arrested if we flee, but we will run out of food soon,” another resident of one of the three villages caught in the crossfire said.
Families in the three villages rely on boats to get to Myeik town, but the route is now blocked by a junta warship whose sailors arrest civilians on sight and accuse them of being linked to the resistance, residents of the villages say.
Htamin Ma Sar village is located near the Myeik-Dawei Union Road. Fighting broke out there on May 2 when troops from the Karen National Defense Force Organization and local People’s Defense Forces (PDFS) attacked about 70 junta soldiers based in the village, the Myeik District PDF Battalion 1 said.
“We have surrounded the junta outpost in Htamin Ma Sar. The regime is using warships and warplanes to mount a strong defense,” an information officer from the PDF said.
Htamin Ma Sar is located about 19 kilometers from Pulaw Town and comprises about 390 households.
The information officer from the PDF said two resistance fighters have died and eight more have been injured in the fighting since May 2.
Fighting between junta troops and allied resistance forces has intensified in Tanintharyi Region.
So far this month, resistance forces have seized a junta hilltop outpost on the border of Tanintharyi and Bokpyin townships, a junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee outpost in Thayet Chaung Township in Dawei district, and a junta outpost at Paedak on the Union Highway linking Yangon, Dawei, Myeik and Kawthaung.
