In this file photo taken on March 8, members of the ethnic rebel group Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) take part in a training exercise at their base camp in the forest in Myanmar’s northern Shan State.
Myanmar’s military junta has used foreigners including Thais as human shields in northeastern Shan State, where fighting the junta and an ethnic alliance is escalating, according to The Irrawaddy online.
Instead of sending them back to their respective countries, the junta’s anti-human trafficking unit sent them to military camps, the online quoted a humanitarian worker as saying. Apart from Thais, other foreign nationals were those from Nepal, Ethiopia and Laos.
“The army is using them as forced labor to build bunkers, dig trenches, and carry timber. They are practically human shields.”
The foreigners are being held in front-line outposts in Laukkai town where…
