Update No.

83: July 30th 2011 - 7:30 pm Shelling in Myawaddy Town On July 26th 2011, a resident of Myawaddy Town, Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya Dis trict reported to KHRG that, on July 21st 2011, between approximately 6:00 and 9 :00 am, mortar fire was exchanged between soldiers from Tatmadaw LIB #275 based in Dta Tah Thone Kone and soldiers from Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Ba ttalion #907[1] operating in the area. According to the villager, the shells lan ded near Myawaddy Town, in the area of two neighbouring villages, Dt--- and N--. The villager reported that villagers were scared when they heard the shelling and have since prepared their belongings in advance, in order to flee if more fi ghting occurs in the area. The source also reported that many Myawaddy residents have avoided going to their agricultural projects outside of Myawaddy since the shelling; as of July 26th, some Myawaddy villagers continued to stay in their h omes and were avoiding travel to agricultural projects outside of their village areas. Footnotes [1] DKBA #907 has been used loosely to refer to DKBA units commanded by Na Kha M way that refused to transform into Tatmadaw Border Guard battalions, and have be en fighting Tatmadaw forces since November 7th 2010. Na Kha Mway left the KNU/KN LA in 1997 and became the commander of DKBA Battalion #907; in 2007 he was promo ted to head four DKBA battalions (#901, #906, #907 and a security battalion) as the commander of the Klo Htoo Baw [Golden Drum] Tactical Command. In May 2009 th is unit was reconfigured as DKBA Brigade #5, with Na Kha Mway commanding Battali ons #901, 905, 906, 907 and 909; Brigade #5 was active in the Kya-In Seik Kyi, K awkareik and Myawaddy areas of Dooplaya and Pa'an districts. For more on the ori gins of the current conflict and the transformation of DKBA troops into Border G uard battalions, see: "Protection concerns expressed by civilians amidst conflic t in Dooplaya and Pa'an districts," KHRG, November 2010.