As the military struggles for control in southeastern Myanmar, joint forces of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) are shifting the power balance.

Widespread opposition to the Myanmar Army’s hostilities and attempted power grab has resulted in growing military defections and a strengthened armed opposition presence along the country’s borders. With the Myanmar junta quickly losing ground and momentum, the attacks continue to increase.

As a result, the junta is becoming increasingly paranoid and desperate, and with the usual tactics it has employed before; it has responded by retaliating against civilians. In addition to scorched-earth campaigns, extrajudicial killings, and aerial and ground attacks, junta soldiers are using its notorious “four-cuts strategy” in parts of the country that have not been directly targeted in previous military operations, primarily Mon state. 

The four-cuts strategy, designed to cut off food sources, funds, information and recruits, was created in Karen state in the 1960s when the Myanmar Army started fighting the Communist Party and the Karen National Union (KNU). It has been deployed repeatedly since in various military operations, including in Rakhine state in 2017.

Now it is being forcefully deployed in Mon state as one of the many tools used to demoralize communities supporting the resistance movement. 

In Mon state, the military is also cutting off food and water supplies to people affected by conflict, shelling displacement camps and religious sites, and have targeted displaced people attempting to harvest rice from their villages. It has deliberately destroyed food stocks and medical relief supplies.

Violations documented

The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), founded by exiled pro-democracy students from the 1988 uprisings, recent activists and Mon community leaders and youth, documents the human-rights violations in Mon state, Karen state and Tanintharyi region.

In southeastern Myanmar, from 1995 to 2010 in Yebyu and southern Ye Townships, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which was then led by General Than Shwe, used the four-cuts campaign to eliminate armed insurgents. There, villagers faced systematic surveillance and travel restrictions.

They were placed on nighttime or 24-hour curfews whenever there were reports of insurgent activity. Households and entire villages had to be forcibly relocated.

After 2010, Mon state was not a target for the junta. However, fighting remained active in neighbouring areas, such as Karen state and the Tanintharyi region. 

Currently, Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon state, has been the most affected by air strikes after the military coup.  Since the second week of November, the People’s Defense Forces and the Karen armed joint forces began their military operation in the Kyaikmayaw, Kyainnseikyi, and Kawkareik areas in Brigade 6.

The junta has lost many of its bases in these locations. Since then, the military has scaled up their attacks by targeting civilians with aerial and ground bombardments, forcing them to seek refuge. Nearly 30,000 residents have been forced to flee as a result. 

“The military is using the ‘four-cuts campaign’ against us. This is a scary fact,” a native of Kyaikmayaw Township and former member of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) told HURFOM.

“They are oppressing and killing people during the operations. They cut the flow of information so that nearby townships would not know about the military activities and human rights violations taking place.”

During the last three weeks of November, HURFOM documented a notable increase in the conflict between the military junta and the revolutionary forces.

Our reporting indicates that an additional 3,500 to 5,000 civilians from four villages near Chaung Hna Kwa village, Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon state, were displaced in the third week of November due to artillery and aerial attacks by the junta’s Southeast Command based in Mawlamyine.

Communications cut

On top of this, the Myanmar Army is systematically cutting off mobile Internet lines as well as Wi-Fi throughout the area. 

This deliberate cutting off the flow of information is part of the junta’s four-cuts strategy. With little to no options of where it may be safe to go, displaced communities rely upon networks on the ground to support them with protection, food, shelter, and medicine. 

Between 40 and 50 villages in Mon state have eerily become ghost towns since November 17, as they have been completely abandoned. In addition, at least 30 villages in Kyaikmayaw have been cut off from phone and Internet connections and local security news. The disrupted communications have left residents feeling deeply insecure. 

“It’s a way to keep information out. Our parents and grandparents, who faced this kind of oppression in the past, know this strategy very well because the military used it for several decades in Ye Township,” the same Kyaikmayaw Township resident said.

“Now, they are using it again in Mon state. It is a brutal strategy being deployed to the best of their ability.”

After almost three years since the coup, civilians of Kyaikmayaw Township are facing serious challenges and threats to their well-being.

“Armed conflict directly affects the locals in Kyainnseikyi Township and Kaw Ka Rate Townships. It is deeply problematic that we cannot receive news on the situation,” a 50-year-old villager of Kyun village in Kyaikmayaw township told HURFOM. “I don’t know what will happen or how to prepare for the worst.” 

Tensions between the armed resistance and the junta are growing, and the violence is anticipated to worsen. At about noon on November 12, two children, aged 7 and 8, were killed by a retaliatory artillery explosion in Paw Law Gone village in Kyaikmayaw Township.

Many villages have become trapped amid the increased fighting. The junta has closed off roads in Chaung Hna Khwa village, while residents in Mae Hta Ro, Taung Kalay, Kanar Lo and Kyan Taw, and at least 10 other villages are unable to leave because the regime has blocked pathways to safety.

Relief organizations are struggling to meet the many needs of civilians on the ground who are seeking urgent protection. The safest places for conflict-affected Mon residents are in areas controlled by the KNU, which are closer to the Thai side of the border. However, the needs of civilians exceed the amount of resources available, especially for service providers who are already limited in funding.

While disputes over territory may have been a cause of division for the Mon and Karen in the past, waves of solidarity are emerging between the two groups, especially as it becomes more apparent that solidarity is needed more than ever.  

In times like these, it’s becoming clear that historical ethnic divisions are irrelevant. Today, between 32,000 and 35,000 Mon refugees are fleeing into areas controlled by the KNU and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) located in Kyainnseikyi Township. Some areas in this township have been mixed-controlled between the KNU Brigade 6 and the NMSP since their ceasefire with the junta in 1995.

As the conflict intensifies, the junta is relying heavily on countries supporting its war on the people by providing ammunition, jet fuel, military equipment, and technology. World leaders must stand with the people of Myanmar. All aid must go through localized cross-border channels to ensure the junta does not weaponize assistance by seizing goods and blocking transport routes.

Further, the safety and security of civilians must be prioritized through a global arms embargo and sanctions on aviation fuel.

The people of Myanmar are standing together. It is about time the international community stood with them.