On March 7th 2022 at 3:15 pm, fighting broke out near A--- village, Chin Thu Saw village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh (Thandaunggyi) Township, Taw Oo (Toungoo) District between Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[2] Battalion #5 from Brigade 2 and State Administration Council (SAC)[3] Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)[4] #604. SAC LIB #604 is based at Day Dah Hkoh army camp, which is very close to A--- village [SAC LIB #604 is also based at D--- village, K’Lay Hkoh village tract[5], Daw Hpa Hkoh Township]. SAC LIB #604 is led by Battalion Commander Hain San Tun (who is based at the Day Dah Hkoh army camp). After the fighting, SAC LIB #604 from Day Dah Hkoh army camp fired mortars at nearby villages. Local villagers were very afraid that they would be hit by the mortars. No villagers were injured, but their plantations (cardamom, turmeric and coffee) were damaged by the shelling.

On the morning of March 8th 2022, soldiers from SAC Support Unit #930 from Southern Command Headquarters went back to Toungoo Town after they transported food and ammunition to their Ta Bwe Klo and Thauk Yay Khat army camps in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township. While they were returning, they encountered local KNLA soldiers, and an armed clash occurred around 7:45 am. During the fighting, more than five SAC soldiers were killed and one SAC truck was destroyed. The fighting took place between B--- village and C--- village, Kweh P’Loh village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township. After the fighting, SAC LIB #604, based in D--- village, K’Lay Hkoh village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, about 10 miles [16.09 km] from where the fighting took place, indiscriminately fired about 15 mortars from their army camp at nearby villages, including D---, C---, A--- and E--- villages. The shelling damaged villagers’ plantations. The blasts also shook villagers’ houses, leading villagers to flee their villages out of fear.

According to local villagers, on March 8th 2022 at around 12:00 pm in B--- village, a soldier from SAC LIB #604 went to the house of villager Saw Aung Aung and shot him five times [villagers found five bullet wounds on his body], killing him. He was about 30 years old and a father to one son. The order to shoot and kill Saw Aung Aung came from Battalion Commander Hain San Tun. After Saw Aung Aung was shot dead, they [SAC soldiers] took his phone and the money found on his body. Then, they dragged his dead body along the road from Htah Thaw Hpoh Lee village to the place of that day’s earlier armed clash [most likely to make it appear as though he was killed in the fighting]. On March 13th 2022, local villagers found the dead body of Saw Aung Aung there. His body was already rotting and sticky [decomposing].

On March 9th 2022 at 6:30 pm, about 20 soldiers from SAC LIB #604, led by Battalion Commander Hain San Tun, entered D--- village, K’Lay Hkoh village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township. They then fired more than 100 rounds from small arms and six artillery shells into plantations between D--- village and F--- village, Htee Thar Saw village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township. Villagers from both villages and the plantations fled as they were very afraid. After firing those shots, Battalion Commander Hain San Tun and 11 of his soldiers went to meet the Section #3 SAC administrator in D--- village at 7:30 pm but the administrator was not at his house. However, the administrator’s wife was at the house at that time. Therefore, they [the SAC commander and his soldiers] talked to the administrator’s wife and asked her about Karen National Union (KNU)[6] members and family of KNU members in the village. She said she did not know any members of the KNU. Then they pointed a gun at her and asked her to show them the houses of KNU members. [Out of fear] she showed them [the SAC soldiers] a house [without knowing anything]. Later, they [the SAC] burned and destroyed food, clothing, house materials, pots, bowls and about 300 viss [480 kg][7] of dried turmeric from that house. (Villagers sell dried turmeric for income in order to support their livelihoods.) They also confiscated a smartphone from the house.

At 8:30 pm on March 9th 2022, they [SAC LIB #604] fired warning shots using artillery fire to encourage villagers to leave their villages. They [SAC LIB #604 soldiers] told villagers that they should leave with their belongings to other places by 10:00 am on March 10th 2022 because they will fire mortars into Section #3 of D---- village and clear the area after 10:00 am on that day. In the early morning of March 10th 2022, some villagers fled to other safe places by car and motorbike; while others fled by foot. They did not even cook or eat breakfast [that morning before fleeing].

On March 11th 2022 at 11:00 am, SAC LIB #604 burned down a shop owned by a villager who lives in B--- village, Kweh P’Loh village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township. The shop is worth more than 3,000,000 kyats [USD 1,687.00].[8] After the SAC burned down the shop, B--- villagers fled to the nearby forest in order to avoid future violence because they were very afraid of SAC activities. This village is located near where fighting broke out between the KNLA and SAC a few days earlier [on March 8th 2022]. Also, they [SAC soldiers] restricted the villagers’ movement by not allowing any villager to leave the village [some villagers already fled when the fighting happened]. Later, they [the SAC] allowed villagers to leave, but almost everyone in the village had already [covertly] fled due to ongoing indiscriminate shelling near the village. In addition, on March 9th 2021, they [LIB #604] also burned down a COVID-19 screening checkpoint near D--- village, K’Lay Hkoh village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township.                 

Further background reading on the security situation and human rights violations in Taw Oo District in Southeast Burma can be found in the following KHRG reports:

• “Taw Oo District Incident Report: A villager’s house was damaged by indiscriminate gunfire from a drunk SAC military officer in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, August 2021”, December 2021.
• “Taw Oo District Incident Report: Killing case in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, July 2021”, December 2021.
• “Taw Oo District Incident Report: Rape case in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, August 2020”, February 2021.