Human rights violations in Mon State continue to increase steadily, according to the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM).
In the two and a half years since the coup, military impunity is in every facet of life in Southeastern Burma. Civilians continue to carry the burden of their livelihoods being strained.
Extortion is ongoing at checkpoints, and indiscriminate firing regularly threatens the safety of local people.
The affiliation of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) to the junta has also caused divisions.
At the end of June, the 31st local military battalion launched indiscriminate artillery attacks on Kyouk Eye Village, in Khaw Zar Sub-township, Southern Ye Township, Mon State, killing a local woman.
The NMSP visited the victims' houses to offer financial support. However, local Mon people have criticized them for their conduct in this incident and are questioning their political stance with the junta.
“The revolutionary forces are active in the NMSP-controlled areas, and the military has also abused villagers there. They frequently shot and killed people, yet the NMSP has provided social and monetary support to families to make them look like a charity group. They must stand with their people and reject the military," said a local villager from Khaw Zar Township.
Since June 15, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People's Defense Forces (PDF) have controlled parts of the Thanbyuzayat – Ye – Dawei Highway Road. After 20 June in some Mon villages where the joint forces of the KNLA and the PDF are active, troops have pulled down the country's flag and replaced it with the flag of the Karen National Union (KNU), according to a source from Thanbyuzayat Township.
Villagers contrast this with the inaction of the NMSP.
”The NMSP behaves the same way in both cases where people were killed in Kan Ne village (Kaw Ka Rate Township, Karen State) and Ye Township. The party just gave monetary support and released statements. We don't see their response militarily. To satisfy people, an armed revolutionary group must militarily protect its people," said a villager from Phar Lane region, Southern Ye Township.
Armed clashes have frequently occurred in Southern Ye Township, leaving local fruit plantation owners unable to go to their orchards.
"About one-third of our durians are left to harvest, and there are mangosteens and rambutans to be harvested for the second time. Plantation owners dare not go to their plantations. They are afraid to stay and work, so they have been abandoned," said a durian plantation owner.
Plantation owners are facing substantial financial losses: "The economy of Ye has depended on fruit plantations, and now we cannot go. Our livelihoods are being destroyed. We have a bad economy and a high commodity prices, so we'll surely be in trouble."
Burmese soldiers and other thieves also steal fruit from nearby plantations without permission from the owners.
In addition, violence is having a devastating impact on civilians. Five residents of East Mawton Village in Tanintharyi were struck and injured when the junta military opened artillery fire when there was no other fighting in the area. On 3 July, between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., the junta artillery battalion in Tanintharyi Township fired more than 20 rounds into surrounding villages, again when there was no fighting in the area.
Artillery Battalion 306, based in East Mawton village, fired artillery at East Mawton, West Mawton, Zalon Pyin Yo, and Ak Daw Kang. Due to the shooting, the mortar shells hit a woman in East Mawton village, three men, and another woman from a nearby house.
