NAYPYITAW, 21 July 2021, (TON): The junta has repeatedly targeted villages and civilians in conflict areas in acts of collective punishment after meeting with armed resistance over the past week, witnesses of such attacks across the country.  

Following battles with ethnic armed groups and People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), junta troops have shelled villages and burned homes.

Last week soldiers shelled Seng Hpra village in Kachin’s Hpakant Township, injuring six residents, following a battle nearby with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

A local from Hpakant told media “three days later, junta officials summoned administrators from Seng Hpra and several other nearby villages to give them a message.”

If residents didn’t inform the military when the KIA entered their villages, their homes would be burned down.