Kaowao News: 28 March 2024
Yesterday evening (March 27th), heavy weapons of the Burmese army exploded in the village of Dhammassa in Kyaikmaraw Township, where conflict has not yet occurred, and the villagers said that hundreds of houses were burnt down and lost.
The value of a residential house is between 50,000,000 kyats to 100,000,000 kyats. The villagers believe that out of the 400 houses in Dhammassa village, more than 300 of them were destroyed by the fire, which may have been caused by the Burmese military’s anti-drone team that entered the village (or by the Burmese naval base in the Gyaing river).
A villager said, “There was no fighting in the village. Revolutionary groups were not around. At around 4 o’clock in the evening, a large weapon thrown by the army landed on the roof of the house and exploded, starting a fire. As it was near the river shore, the wind quickly spread the fire to the entire village. There are not enough fire trucks in the village to stop the fire from spreading and fire truck’s from other villages can’t enter the village either due to the Burmese army blocking the road to the village. There were not many people left in the village. Since the day of the shooting in Kawt Bein, the people of the village have been fleeing, and only some of the house caretakers have remained in the village”.
According to a military observer, there is a reason to believe that the Myanmar Military Council lobbying Telegram accounts have written propaganda saying that the revolutionary group are the ones who fired and started the fire.
“Ever since the capture of Kawt Bein’s camp, everyone has already calculated that the first lines of offense will enter these villages. If Burmese army enters the villages, what will happen next? That’s why the villagers ran in advance. I saw that the SAC military had increased their forces, thinking that they were going to take over the Tarana police station. It’s getting closer to Mawlamyine,” said a Mon regional military analyst.
After the Mon-Karen Revolutionary Joint Forces attacked and occupied the police station in Kawt Bein Village on March 25th, which is about 5 miles away from Dhammassa village, Sang Klom village, Tarana village and Kaw Sak village, regretfully Burmese infantry lines have entered the Kaw Sak village in full force, and the Burmese naval units have been deployed along the Gyaing river and military helicopters roam the sky with machine guns. Reports from the ground indicated that they were firing from anywhere to everywhere in the village without any resistance against them.
