NAYPYITAW, 24 July 2021, (TON): Activists in villages near the Rakhine mountains in Ayeyarwady Region have been forced to flee amid raids by junta troops targeting members of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) and those helping them. 

Hundreds of junta soldiers stationed themselves at the monastery in Thayatkone village in Myan Aung Township last week and have been detaining people in the area ever since, locals told media.

Around 60 soldiers raided Nghat Gyi Kwin, about three miles from Thayatkone. They detained a 30-year-old man named Tun Tun after accusing him of making landmines.

“I think the informants snitched on him,” a Nghat Gyi Kwin resident told media. “The military came into the village saying there were PDFs hiding in here. They came last month as well.”

The resident added “soldiers previously arrested six residents in the village who they said were PDF fighters.”

He said “there are over 20 villages in the Nghat Gyi Kwin tract. Many of the activists here were displaced thanks to those military informants. Those who actively participated in the protests don’t dare to live here anymore. They had to move somewhere else.”

On July 16, a military helicopter flew over the village, he added. “It’d been hovering around all morning. They say they were looking for a PDF training base at the base of the Rakhine mountains.”