30th May, 2021 #day119

 

More than 121,000 people have been displaced in Myanmar since the coup, according to a 29 May United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statement. The latest report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Asia and the Pacific stated that about 46,000 people were displaced in South-Eastern Myanmar in May and fighting in Kayah (Karenni) State left 37,000 people homeless in late May. They are at risk of food and drinking water shortages. According to local volunteers' social media sites, many refugees are sleeping unprotected in the mountains and many shelters are also at risk of flooding due to heavy rains.

Fighting broke out between the junta troops and the CDF-Kanpetlet for three consecutive days in Kanpetlet, a town just seven miles away from Chin State’s Mindat. According to Chin World, nearly half of the 5,000 population in Kanpetlet have fled their homes. The Pa-O Militia, PNO, has been receiving heavy criticism for its collaboration with the junta troops during attacks in Shan’s north and Karenni State. Eleven Pa-O civil society organizations at home and abroad issued a statement on 30 May condemning the PNO's actions, saying that the PNO, as a political party, does not represent the entire Pa-O people.

Fighting broke out between a local PDF and a military council in Katha Township, Sagaing Region. PDF-Katha thanked Bridge 8 of KIA for its support in the fighting. According to Khit Thit Media, four members of the junta were killed and four were injured in yesterday's clashes. This is the first time that an ethnic armed organization has openly provided military assistance to the civilian-based PDF, and netizens have welcomed this joint operation.

According to a KNU statement, Thai government troops are delivering food via the Salween River to a junta troops’ outpost on the Thai-Myanmar border. From May 24 to 28, the Thai military boats delivered supplies nearly 20 times. According to DVB, the US Consulate General officials have not yet been able to meet with Danny Fenster, an American journalist and editor of Frontier Myanmar, who were arrested at the Yangon international airport last week. The reason of the arrest is still unknown at this time.

NUG plans to cooperate with the International Court of Justice on the Rohingya issue and represents the country before the Court as a legitimate government of Myanmar. “We are very concerned about the difficult situation of the Rohingya especially who fled to Bangladesh in 2016-17," the statement said. The term ‘Rohingya’ has been rejected by successive governments, but activists and human rights defenders has welcomed the yesterday’s statement of the NUG for using the term in an official statement for the first time.