In rebel-held Myanmar, civilians face devastating air strikes and a sham election

In rebel-held Myanmar, civilians face devastating air strikes and a sham election Late one night last month Iang Za Kim heard explosions in a neighbouring village, then fighter jets flying overhead. She ran out of her home to see smoke rising from a distance. Iang Za Kim had to flee her home after the junta launched air strikes nearby "We were terrified. We thought the junta's planes would bomb us too. So we grabbed what we could - some food and clothes and ran into the jungles surrounding our village." Iang's face quivers as she recounts the story of what happened on 26 November in K-Haimual, her village in Myanmar's western Chin State, and then she breaks down. She's among thousands of civilians who've fled their homes in recent weeks after the Burmese military launched a fierce campaign of air strikes, and a ground offensive in rebel-held areas across the country, to recapture territory ahead of elections starting on 28 December. Four other women sitting around her on straw mats also start crying. The trauma of what they've gone through to make it to safety is clearly visible. While the air strikes were the immediate cause for Iang to flee, she also doesn't want to be forced to participate in the election. "If we are caught and refuse to vote, they will put us in jail and torture us. We've run away so that we don't have to vote," she says. Some from Chin state have described 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 is among a group that crossed the border into India's Mizoram state. Currently sheltered in a rundown badminton court in Vaphai village, the group's few belongings they were able to carry are packed in plastic sacks. Indian villagers have given them food and basic supplies. Ral Uk Thang has had to flee his home at the age of 80, living in makeshift shelters in jungles for days, before finally making it to safety. "We're afraid of our own government. They are extremely cruel. Their military has come into our and other villages in the past, they've arrested people, tortured them, and burned down homes," he says. It isn't easy to speak to Burmese civilians freely. Myanmar's military government does not allow free access in the country for foreign journalists. It took over the country in a coup in February 2021, shortly after the last election, and has since been widely condemned for running a repressive regime that has indiscriminately targeted civilians as it looks to crush the armed uprising against it across Myanmar. During its latest offensive, the junta last week targeted a hospital in Rakhine State, just south of Chin State. Rebel groups in Rakhine say at least 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured. The Chin Human Rights Organisation says that since mid-September at least three schools and six churches...

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