Konyaks in Myanmar call for end to gunfight

Dimapur, May 18 (EMN): At the receiving end of the Myanmar army’s offensive operations against the NSCN (K), the eastern Konyak people (residing in Myanmar) have appealed to the warring parties not to engage in gunfights in public places.

According to a statement issued by the Eastern Konyak Union (Myanmar) on Saturday, people were suffering due to the “heavy conflict” between the Myanmar army and the NSCN (K).

It stated that the ‘Myanmar army launch heavy firing every year in populated areas in the village, burn down houses, kill domestic animals, chase and shoot people, damage and destroy public granaries, plant bombs inside homes accusing its residents of supporting the NSCN (K).’

On May 16, they started heavy firing from 1 pm to 6 pm in the forest lying between Pesao and Chen Hoyat village; the next day, they recommenced the firing from 9 am to 10 am, it stated. No one can visit the spot to determine whether there were any casualties, it informed.

The residents are “most troubled” and cannot even move from the village , it stated. While the Myanmar army has unleashed offensive from the eastern front, on the western front the Indian army has imposed curfew that restricts even “house-to-house” movement of the villagers, the union stated.

Since 1952, the people have been suffering at the hands of the NSCN (K), Myanmar army and the Indian army, it stated. The union decried “the merciless democratic systems” of India and Myanmar.