The Shan Human Rights Foundation said that Burma Army forced villagers from Kunhing township – in southern Shan State – to march with them on an afternoon patrol to prevent attacks by the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army-South (RCSS/SSA-S) forces which had ambushed the Burma Army troops earlier that day.

“On the way, the troops ordered three more local Shan farmers working outside the village, and a Karen logger working in the jungle, to join the group as [human] shields,” the SHRF said in a media statement.

This meant that a total of 10 villagers were used as human shields that day.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said that Kunhing town had a long history of conflict.
Kunhing township was heavily affected by large-scale forced relocations of as many as 300,000 civilians between 1996 and 1998 – a displacement which saw more than 300 killed.

The conflict in Shan state is part of a larger war across northern Burma between non-state armed groups and the government that has waged since a government offensive against the Kachin Independence Army in 2011.

Since 2011 more than 100,000 people have become displaced by the conflict.