🔗 Share this article

In the dead of night last month, Iang Za Kim was startled by detonations in a nearby village, and subsequently fighter jets circling the area. She dashed from her home to see plumes of smoke from a distance.

"We were terrified. We thought the military's aircraft might attack us too. So we grabbed what we could – some food and clothes and ran into the forests around our village."

Iang's face quivers as she tells the story of what occurred on 26 November in her community, found in Myanmar's western Chin region. She is one of numerous people who've evacuated their homes in the last month after the national armed forces began a intensive operation of aerial attacks, coupled with a land assault in resistance territory throughout the nation.

People in Chin state have labeled the military's recent operation as the most intense it has conducted in over three years. A large number of those uprooted have sought refuge in other regions of the state. Iang belongs to a group that entered into Mizoram in India. At present residing in a rundown badminton court in Vaphai village, the group's meager possessions they were able to carry are contained in polyethylene bags.

Ral Uk Thang has had to abandon his residence at the age of 80, staying in improvised dwellings in the wilderness for days, prior to eventually making it to safety.

"We fear our own government. They are exceptionally brutal. Their military has come into our and other villages in the past, they've detained individuals, mistreated them, and set houses ablaze," he says.

It is challenging to interview Burmese civilians freely. Myanmar's regime does not allow unfettered entry in the country for overseas correspondents. It assumed power in the country in a coup in February 2021, shortly after the last election.

Humanitarian Toll and Deliberate Strikes

During its latest offensive, the junta recently attacked a hospital in Rakhine State. Resistance organizations in Rakhine report at least 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured.

A monitoring body says that over recent months at least several educational institutions and six churches in Chin State have been targeted by junta airstrikes, causing the death of 12 people including six children.

Evidence confirms the bombing of a school in a community on 13 October. Two students were killed as they were studying. The bombs devastated their classrooms harming more than a dozen other students.

Once again, a man and his small family – a wife and two young children - have been displaced. In 2021, following the coup, their home was destroyed by fire in an air strike. They rebuilt their lives in a new community. Now they're homeless again.

"I can't find the words to explain how agonizing and challenging it is and what a difficult decision it was to make to leave. But we had to do it to preserve our lives," he says.

A Questioned Election

A prominent political group, which won landslides in the two elections preceding the coup, will not be contesting as most of its senior leaders are imprisoned.

"We reject this election. Because the military does not know how to govern our country. They only work for the interest of their top officials. When the previous government was in power, we experienced a bit of democracy. But now all we do is cry and shed tears," says Ral Uk Thang.

Iang Za Kim believes the election will be fixed. "If we participated for a party not allied with the military, I believe they will falsify the outcome and claim we voted for them."

The vote will take place in phases, with a result anticipated around the end of January. Resistance forces have called it a farce.

Resistance Battleground and Sacrifices

Within a compound of a key resistance organization operating in the state, a leader states: "This process is only being held to perpetuate military dictatorship. It's not about the public's voice."

He highlights the areas where the heaviest clashes is continuing. "Units of hundreds of soldiers trying to advance into the northern part of Chin state from multiple fronts," he says. "The soldiers are being backed up by air strikes, artillery fire and by drone units."

Visits to such bases is extremely rare. Situated in thickly forested mountains, it is the center of the resistance against the junta in Chin state.

Within a clinic at the base, a group of injured fighters were admitted overnight and had to undergo hours of surgery. Some of them have had to undergo limb removals.

Many of them were just youths when the coup occurred in 2021. Just about adults now, they've set aside their dreams to fight on the frontline against the junta.

"As the enemy was retreating we ran forward and I stepped on a landmine. We were injured in the explosion. Then we were struck from above. The airstrikes make things very difficult for us," says one injured fighter. "Despite my injury, even if I've to give up my life I'm happy to make the sacrifice so that coming generations have a improved existence."

The impact of the brutality of the recent campaign is evident in every corner at the hospital.

However, it's the support and grit of many thousands of youths who picked up arms that have helped the rebels make rapid advances against a much more powerful rival.

Individuals such as 80-year-old the elderly refugee hope that post-poll, the junta will withdraw, and he will be able to go back home.

"But I don't think I will live to see democracy restored in Myanmar," he says. "I hope my children and grandchildren can experience it some day."