Hundreds of Myanmar families were uprooted from their homes, a community organiser said, piling their belongings onto evacuation convoys to escape fighting between the military and anti-coup guerrillas.
Heavy combat has been raging since last Monday around the village of Saung Nang Khae in the eastern Shan State, according to locals and evacuation organisers.
Ramshackle convoys of tractors were piled with livestock, wheelchairs and suitcases on Friday as they hauled local families to temporary shelter in the village of BC Kone some 60km southwest.
On Saturday, Khun Pyae Linn, the spokesman of the youth wing of the Kayan New Land Party which controls the enclave and which organised evacuation efforts, said “rescue operations are still ongoing”.
“We evacuated more than 600 people but there were other organisations that helped villagers too. So it could be over 1,500 villagers that were moved to safe shelters,” he added.
The military and some of its adversaries had pledged a truce this month as the country recovers from March’s devastating magnitude-7.7 earthquake which killed more than 3,700 people.
But Anyne Zel, 24, said she had been forced to flee as artillery and air strikes pounded her home area – the second time she has been forced to evacuate in two years.
“I want to ask them to stop the war. Every time they fight the victims are us, the civilians,” she said on Friday.
“I don’t even think about the future of our lives anymore.”
Lone Phaw, a 63-year-old farmer, said the onslaught of fighting in Saung Nang Khae was so sudden that he and his wife abandoned their home with only a single piece of clothing each, some blankets, pots and a bag of rice.
“We only had time to run when it happened,” he said.
“We can’t guess what our future holds.” — AFP
