PAUKTAW: Gutted constructions, vacant home windows and blocks bombed to rubble display the fee paid by means of the western Myanmar the city of Pauktaw for victory towards the junta within the nation’s civil battle.Opponents from the Arakan Military (AA) ethnic minority armed team took keep an eye on of the fishing port of 20,000 society in January, because the battle sparked by means of the army’s coup entered its fourth past.Pauktaw was once considered one of a anecdote of losses suffered by means of the junta around the nation on the pace, important many to wish its decades-long stranglehold over Myanmar’s politics may well be damaged.4 months then, the Arakan Military rest in keep an eye on however Pauktaw is most commonly unfilled of citizens, who’re residing at the outskirts and terrified of a repeat of the junta’s bulky artillery assaults in town.”We are frightened of them (the military),” one guy advised AFP from his brief house simply outdoor Pauktaw, requesting anonymity for safety causes. “We don’t know what will happen or what kind of weapon they will drop on us if we go and stay back at home in the town. “We will’t come across their breeze moves or bombs and we will be able to be killed in the event that they assault.”Video taken by locals this month and obtained exclusively by AFP shows streets silent apart from birdsong and the sounds of AA soldiers sifting through piles of debris and sheets of corrugated iron.Near a deserted market that once bustled with vendors buying and selling crabs and tiger shrimp, a ragged awning advertising a mobile phone carrier flutters above the doorway of a gutted shop.Phone and internet services have been all but cut off. – No chance -The AA has fought an on-off war for years against the Myanmar military, seeking more autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population.As the army has faced growing resistance to its rule, from multiple armed groups — some new, some long-established — the AA has stepped up its campaign. As the junta has lost territory on the ground, it is increasingly calling on its air power to support its ground troops.Rights groups accuse the junta of using the strikes to punish communities suspected of opposing its rule.When a military helicopter hovered over Pauktaw and began shooting into the town last November, many fled in panic.”There was once deny anticipation for us to pluck a unmarried factor from our space,” one woman now living outside the town told AFP. “We had cooked a pot of rice and we weren’t ready to devour it,” she said, also asking for anonymity. “We had deny cash once we fled. We most effective had some gold jewelry with us. We attempted to pawn that but it surely wasn’t simple. The hobby was once too prime.”The fate of Pauktaw’s residents reflects a nationwide tragedy. Across Myanmar, around 2.7 million have been forced to flee by the civil war.- Looting -The AA has not allowed residents to live back in Pauktaw, citing the danger of more air or artillery strikes on the town, although it does allow them to come and go to pick up items.The man who spoke to AFP said he had returned to check on his house and found it partly in ruins, with the family statue of the Buddha fallen onto the floor. His savings box — containing money for a Buddhist ritual for his children and for timber to repair a roof damaged by a cyclone last year — was gone, he said. “I’ve misplaced all of that cash,” he said.”The entirety in our space were given stolen… my father’s fishing nets had been stolen,” another woman said, also requesting anonymity.”I’m a tailor, and by chance, I controlled to save lots of my stitching machines.”During the fighting, both sides looted houses and damaged buildings, according to local reports.In March, the AA said it would “examine” any reports of looting by its members during the fighting. – ‘Decisive battle’ -The AA’s offensive has seized swathes of territory in Rakhine state and along the border with India and Bangladesh.It has said it will capture state capital Sittwe, 25 kilometres from Pauktaw and the last major town in northern Rakhine in the military’s hands. In April, the AA warned residents of the town, which is home to an India-backed deep sea port, to leave ahead of a “decisive” battle.Sittwe residents contacted by AFP said the military was restricting travel out of the town by road and river and the prices of basic foods such as rice and eggs had doubled.Those already displaced from Pauktaw fear further fighting nearby. “I’m unhappy that we’ve got fled our personal space and we will’t reside in it,” one resident told AFP. “I’ve pawned my necklace for 18 lakhs ($850) so we’ve got cash to reside. I nonetheless hope I will be able to declare it again.”Others said they wanted payback.”I haven’t joined the Arakan Military as a result of I’m fearful about who will glance next my kid,” one woman said. “If I wasn’t… I might secured them and struggle again. I can be glad provided that I will be able to pluck revenge.”
