Type of Incident

[Shelling.] SAC [State Administration Council (SAC)[2]]’s shelling into a village, injuring four children.

Date of Incident(s)

July 9th 2025

Incident Location

(Village, Township and District)

Aa--- village, Myauk Kya Inn village tract[3], Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District.

Victim(s) Information

Name

B---

Ma[4] A---

Ma C---

Maung[5] D---

Age

2 years old

4 years old

10 years old

10 months old

Gender

Boy

Girl

Girl

Boy

Ethnicity

Pa’O

Pa’O

Pa’O

Pa’O

Marital Status  

-

-

-

-

Occupation

-

-

-

-

Religion

Buddhist

Buddhist

Buddhist

Buddhist

Position

- [Villager]

- [Villager]

- [Villager]

- [Villager]

Village

A farm near Kruh Tuh Town, Kruh Tuh Township.

A farm near Kruh Tuh Town, Kruh Tuh Township.

A farm near Kruh Tuh Town, Kruh Tuh Township.

A farm near Kruh Tuh Town, Kruh Tuh Township.

Perpetrator Information (Armed Actors)

Name(s)

Rank

Unit

Base

Commander’s Name

-

-

[SAC] Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)[6] #545

Kruh Tuh Town, Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District

-

1. Explain in detail how you collected this information.

The information was provided by an officer of the [Karen National Union (KNU)[7]] documentation group[8] in Kruh Tuh Township. [A KHRG field researcher went to the incident location and conducted interviews with the victims’ grandmother and the village head].

2. Explain how the source verified this information.

The interviews were conducted with the grandmother of the four injured children [named Daw[9] E---], and the village head [U[10] F---] [who witnessed the incident]. 

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail.

The fighting broke out between the State Administration Council (SAC) and armed resistance groups along the Asian Highway[11] road [between Kruh Tuh Town and Kaw T’Ree Town], in Kruh Tuh Township, Dooplaya District, [beginning] in [April] 2025. SAC Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #545 [based in Kruh Tuh Town], often fired mortar shells into the villages [near Kruh Tuh Town] without any fighting having occurred [nearby the villages].

On July 9th 2025, at 5:30 pm, the SAC indiscriminately fired one 120 mm mortar shell into Aa--- village, Myauk Kya Inn village tract, Kruh Tuh Township, and it [the mortar shell] landed in front of a [small] hut where four children were playing and injured them. Those four injured children are: Ma A--- (4 years old), who sustained an injury to her head; B--- (2 years old), who sustained an injury to his back; Ma C--- (10 years old), who sustained an injury to her head, ear, and left knee; and Maung D--- (10 months old), who sustained an injury to his face, head, and back.

Among these four injured children, Ma A--- was seriously injured on the head, so [villagers organised] a volunteer car from the village, contacted the DKBA [Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA)[12]], and sent the child to the Three Pagodas Pass hospital [run by the DKBA and located in a town bordering Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province].

Those four children live with their grandmother because their parents work in Thailand. The victims’ family member [grandmother], named Daw E---, explained to KHRG: “The shelling destroyed the entire hut. Fortunately, the children were lucky and sustained only minor injuries, and none of them were in life-threatening danger.”

After the children were injured by the shelling, the villagers [from Aa--- village] provided some money to the victims’ family. The victims did not have to pay for the transportation and treatment. Daw E--- expressed her gratitude and said: “I am in need of money. I am very thankful [to the volunteer team] for transporting the child to the hospital. I am happy because the children have recovered from the injuries.”    

When the fighting happens in the areas near Kruh Tuh Town, some villagers flee to Aa--- village, while others flee to other places. The children who were injured by the SAC shelling were displaced people in Aa--- village for about three months. [Previously, they lived on a farm near Kruh Tuh Town]. During displacement, the SAC indiscriminately conducted shelling and injured them. U F---, the village head from Aa--- village, Myauk Kya Inn village tract, explained to KHRG: “I do not know why they [the SAC] conducted the shelling. The fighting did not happen near the area [Aa--- village]. They indiscriminately conducted this shelling because there were no enemies in the village. Only villagers live in the village. The children who were injured were displaced people. I wish shellings would not happen again in the future.”

There were around 30 villagers from the areas near Kruh Tuh Town displaced in Aa--- village. The displaced people work on plantation farms or extract rubber latex as daily labourers. An international organisation [name censored for security] provided some support to help improve their [the displaced villagers’] livelihoods.

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.

This information can be used. They [the grandmother and village head] do not want the SAC to fire mortars into the village again but said it would be acceptable [to publish the information with censoring, so that the SAC does not retaliate against their village].