July 1

Although people heard good news on the revolutionary front last week, the junta’s atrocities are intensifying.

 

People have been carefully watching the situation on how the revolutionary activities would proceed, as it has been six months since the National Unity Government said this year is the decisive year for the revolution.

 

Junta’s airstrikes

 

Junta conducted airstrikes on the villages in Sagaing Region and Karenni State where most of the clashes between the army and armed resistance forces broke out during the last few days.

 

A monk and 10 civilians were killed during an airstrike in Nyaung Kone village in Pale township in Sagaing Region on June 27.

 

Two days before the attack in Sagaing, junta forces conducted airstrikes on Nankit village in Karenni State on June 25, killing four civilians.

 

The airstrikes were apparently targeting ordinary civilians, not military targets.

 

The deadliest junta airstrikes happened last year in Sagaing Region and in Let Yet Kone in Hpakant town in Kachin State.

 

A monk mysteriously missing in jail

 

A monk in Mandalay who due to be released from prison disappeared mysteriously for over a week now, the Sangha Union in Mandalay said on June 27.

 

Sayadaw U Thawbita (Alinka Kyalsin) was arrested since the 01 February 2021 coup and sentenced to four years in prison. He was due to be released last week after the junta reduced his sentence.

 

But his family said they have not received any news about Sayadaw U Thawbita, since June 20 when he was supposed to be freed. Prison authorities have yet to provide information about his whereabouts.

 

Mobile connection and internet access cut off in Loikaw

 

The junta cut mobile connection and Internet services in Loikaw township, Karenni (Kayah) State since June 27.

 

Only the junta-owned Mytel telecoms is able to have mobile phone access and internet service.

 

Army mass defection

 

There were unconfirmed reports earlier in the week about the military’s 430th Light Infantry Battalion based in Mese town in Karenni State having defected to the resistance forces.

 

The battalion has only 21 military personnel and 18 of them defected while the remaining three soldiers escaped.

 

The Karenni resistance forces started to attack military bases in Mese town on June 13 and were allegedly able to seize all military bases in the town.

 

The National Unity Government (NUG) Union Minister Mann Win Khaing Than said that people would be hearing more news about the defections of junta forces in the near future.

 

Young students faint at the junta’s drug destroying ceremony

 

Some students who attended the ceremony of destroying seized drugs by the junta fainted when the drugs were set fire in Taunggyi town in Shan State.

 

The Junta forces hosted the destruction of the seized illegal drugs to mark “International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” in Taunggyi in Shan state on June 26.

 

At least 35 students had to be hospitalized after allegedly inhaling the smell of the drugs that were set on fire.

 

Pact Myanmar decided to leave Burma, giving up on its loans

 

American Microfinance Fund company Pact Myanmar said it is going to shut down its businesses by the end of June and would not recover its loans to about one million of people across the country.

 

The company said it would be leaving Myanmar without taking back their loans after it wasn’t able to register as junta-controlled business.

 

Pact Myanmar has been operating in Myanmar, with more than 4000 staff, since 1997 through the help of United National Development Program (UNDP). In 2021, it transformed into Microfinance Fund business and provided small interest loans to people in the rural areas.

 

20 people including resistance force members killed in Sagaing

 

The regime forces killed a total of 20 people, including members of People’s Defense Forces, after it raided PDF camps in Kindaw, Kaipyin and Uyin villages located alongside the Ayeyarwaddy river, in Sagaing region.

 

The military raided the resistance forces camps on June 25, killing 18 members of the Ngazon PDF and two civilians.

 

Another discussion between EAOs and military

 

Five ethnic armed organizations that are signatories to the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) held a three-day meeting with the junta’s peace monitoring group, between June 26 and 27.

 

National Ceasefire Agreement spokesperson Saw Mya Yarzar Lin told VOA that four new agreements were approved in principle and five operational agreements were reached during the discussion.

 

The EAOs that met with the military council was Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), KNU/KNLA-Peace Council, Lahu Democratic Union (LDU) and Pa’ Oh National Liberation Organization (PNLO).

 

A bridge destroyed in Mon state

 

A coalition of resistance forces comprised of the ethnic armed group Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) destroyed Khine Eaik bridge along the Yangon-Mawlamyine highway road.

 

The bridge is a key infrastructure use for military reinforcements in Bilin township in Mon State It was destroyed by the use of landmines on the morning of June 29.

 

The resistance forces attacked the military officials who came to check the destroyed bridge, killing two and injured at least five.

 

Burma Associated Press