Myanmar Launches Air Strikes Against Rebel Camp Near Border

The Champhai district of Mizoram is full of fear because it is close to a key rebel camp in Myanmar that was bombed by that country’s military. When they heard the bombing, people in the Farkawn village in Mizoram, which is close to the border with Myanmar, got scared.

People who worked on the Indian side of the river Tiau, which marks the border between the two countries, ran home to the village. People in Farkawn saw members of the Assam Rifles checking out the area. Local activists said that the shell landed on the Indian side of the river 30 metres from the river bank.

The international newspaper The Guardian also said that at least two bombs were dropped inside Indian territory when the Myanmar military attacked a training camp for pro-democracy forces near the border with India.

The Guardian quoted a rebel commander as saying that the Myanmar junta, which took power in a coup in February 2021 and is now fighting a bloody war against pro-democracy rebels, started bombing Camp Victoria in Myanmar’s Chin state on Tuesday afternoon.

Camp Victoria is where the Chin National Army (CNA), an ethnic armed group that is fighting to bring democracy back to Myanmar with other rebel groups under the banner of People’s Defense Force, has its headquarters (PDF). A few kilometres from the border with Mizoram is where the training camp is.

The report said that Rama, who only goes by one name, is the president of the Farkawan village council. He said that the bombings caused “panic” in his village and that people were afraid more strikes would happen near the border.

An official from the Mizoram government in Farkawn’s district, Champhai, said that the strikes damaged a state-registered truck on the Indian side of the border. The official said that they were “keeping a close eye” on the area, but that nothing “immediately significant” had happened.

“One bomb hit a truck from our side that was parked near the Tiau river. After the bombing, some people from Myanmar crossed the border, and people in our village are helping them and the hurt. “We could see that three fighter jets and two helicopters did the bombing,” the president of the village council in Farkawan was quoted as saying.

The IE report said that at least 5 people from Myanmar crossed over early on Wednesday. A member of the Young Mizo Association (YMA) who lives close to Farkawn and went to the area on Wednesday said that the villagers were scared and tense. “The Farkawn people are scared… Mc Lalramenga, president of the local YMA chapter, was quoted as saying, “No one is going to work near the border.”

Seven rebel fighters, including one woman, were killed by the bombings from the air in Myanmar, and more than 20 people in Camp Victoria were hurt, a rebel commander told The Guardian. He identified the slain rebels as Salai Van Ro Piang, Salai Duh Tin, Mai Ngun Hlei Par, Mai Sui Len Par and Salai Kil Mang.

The junta has been using air strikes more and more, especially in areas held by ethnic rebel forces, as part of a brutal campaign of violence to keep their power. At least 80 people, most of them civilians, were killed when the military bombed a concert in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state in October.

It is the first time that the junta has tried to bomb Camp Victoria in Chin from the air. Because the rebel camp was so close to the Indian border, the rebel leaders said they did not expect an air attack.