Across Resistance-Occupied Burma, Ordinary People Endure Ruinous Aerial Bombardments and a Fraudulent Election

In the dead of night last month, a resident heard detonations in a adjacent village, followed by warplanes circling the area. She ran out her home to see a smoke cloud from a distance.

"We were horrified. We believed the junta's planes would bomb us too. So we grabbed what we could – some food and clothes and ran into the forests surrounding our village."

Her face trembles as she recounts the events of what transpired on 26 November in her village, found in Myanmar's western Chin region. She's among numerous people who've fled their homes in the past few weeks after the Myanmar army began a relentless assault of aerial attacks, alongside infantry advances in insurgent-controlled zones throughout the nation.

People in Chin state have characterized the junta's latest offensive as the fiercest it has launched in more than three years. Many of the displaced have sought refuge in other parts of the state. Iang belongs to a group that crossed the border into the Indian state of Mizoram. Now housed in a rundown badminton court in Vaphai, the group's meager possessions they were able to carry are contained in plastic sacks.

Ral Uk Thang has had to flee his home at the age of 80, residing in makeshift shelters in jungles for days, until at last making it to safety.

"We're afraid of our own government. They are extremely cruel. Their military has invaded our and other villages in the past, they've taken citizens, mistreated them, and set houses ablaze," he says.

It is challenging to converse with Burmese civilians without restriction. Myanmar's ruling junta prohibits free access in the country for overseas correspondents. It seized control of the country in a military takeover in February 2021, soon after the last election.

Civilian Cost and Targeted Strikes

In its most recent campaign, the junta recently attacked a clinic in Rakhine State. Resistance organizations in Rakhine say at least 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured.

A human rights organization states that from September onward at least three schools and a number of places of worship in Chin State have been targeted by military bombing, killing 12 people comprising six children.

Verification shows the destruction of a school in a community on 13 October. Two students were killed as they were studying. The bombs tore through their classrooms wounding more than a dozen other students.

This is the second time, a man and his loved ones – a wife and two young children - have been uprooted. In 2021, following the coup, their home was razed in an air strike. They started over in K-Haimual village. Now they're homeless again.

"I can't find the words to explain how agonizing and challenging it is and what a tough choice it was to make to leave. But we had to do it to survive," he says.

A Disputed Vote

The former ruling party, which won landslides in the two elections preceding the coup, is banned from running as its key figures are detained.

"We don't want the election. Because the military does not know how to govern our country. They only work for the gain of their top officials. When the civilian leadership was in power, we experienced a bit of democracy. But now all we do is grieve and lament," says the refugee.

Iang Za Kim believes the election will be fixed. "If we participated for a party independent from the military, I believe they will steal our votes and claim we voted for them."

The poll will be held in phases, with a result projected around the end of January. Rebel groups have declared it a pretense.

Resistance Frontline and Losses

Within a compound of a prominent rebel group operating in the state, a leader states: "This election is only being held to extend military dictatorship. It's not about the will of the people."

He indicates the areas where the fiercest combat is ongoing. "Units of hundreds of soldiers trying to push into the northern part of Chin state from multiple fronts," he says. "The troops are being backed up by air strikes, artillery fire and by unmanned aerial vehicles."

Entry to such bases is very limited. Set amid wooded hills, it is the core of the fight against the junta in Chin state.

At a medical facility at the base, numerous injured fighters were brought in overnight and had to undergo extensive medical procedures. Some of them have had to undergo amputations.

A significant number were just schoolboys when the coup occurred in 2021. Recently come of age, they've let go of their dreams to serve in the conflict against the junta.

"As the enemy was retreating we ran forward and I triggered a landmine. We were injured in the explosion. Then we were attacked from the air. The airstrikes make things very hard for us," explains a combatant. "Although I am amputated, even if I've to give up my life I'm happy to make the sacrifice so that coming generations have a brighter future."

The consequence of the ferocity of the latest offensive is apparent in every corner at the hospital.

Yet, it's the support and grit of countless numbers of young people who picked up arms that have helped the rebels make rapid advances against a much more powerful rival.

Some like 80-year-old the elderly refugee hope that post-poll, the junta will retreat, and he will be able to go back home.

"But I don't think I will live to see democracy reestablished in Myanmar," he says. "I pray my children and grandchildren can see it some day."