Head of Aid Group Reports Increased Attacks by Myanmar Military in Border Areas

BANGKOK - The head of a Thai-based volunteer aid group, speaking from inside Myanmar, has described increasing attacks by that country’s military in the ethnic areas along the country’s borders with China and Thailand.

Speaking to VOA by satellite phone Friday from northern Kayin state in Myanmar’s east, David Eubank, the head of the Free Burma Rangers, said since the February 1 coup,  Myanmar’s military has not only attacked urban protesters but is now carrying out increasing offensives on the country’s fringes. The United Nations said last month that almost a quarter of a million people have been driven from their homes and villages by post-coup violence, and that millions risk hunger in coming months.  Most of them are spread across the border areas, where ethnic minorities with standing armies have been fighting the military for autonomy for decades.  Eubank’s Free Burma Rangers sends hundreds of volunteers into Myanmar’s conflict zones with medical services and supplies — from rice to schoolbooks — for remote rural areas. ‘The gloves came off’