The Burma Army raided an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp located inside a Kachin Baptist church compound in Sar Maw Village on the Myitkyina to Mandalay Railway line on 18 September.
One of the IDP camp officers, La Doi Awng, said that Captain Wai Yan Linn from the Sar Maw-based Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion 105 (LIB-105) accompanied by local people’s militia troops entered the church compound without permission and searched some of the IDP’s homes.
He said: “They searched the rooms of families staying at the camp. They opened up their chests and inspected them. They entered through the windows, they didn’t make big threats.”
He also said that Capt. Wai Yan Linn had demanded to take photos of the IDPs.
The head of the IDP camp refused to grant Capt. Wai Yan Linn permission to photograph the IDPs. La Doi Awng, the ward administrator and some church members were taken to the Burmese military camp at 5pm, but were released an hour later.
On the morning of 17 September the Kachin Independence Army’s (KIA) Battalion 11 attacked Tsap Ba Bum Burma Army military camp near to the former village of Sut Leng Yang close to Sar Maw Village.
This fighting caused more people to seek shelter at the IDP camp in the compound of Sar Maw Baptist Church.
Currently, the Burma Army is preventing trucks carrying food supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP) to Man Win IDP camp in southern Kachin State. As a result many IDPs there do not even have rice porridge to eat, said an official from the camp.
