"Increasing conflict between Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups and government forces during the last year has increased civilian casualties amid mounting allegations of war crimes. With the U.N.’s International Court of Justice order that the country "take all measures within its power" to prevent any acts of genocide against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who fled the country amid a bloody military crackdown in 2017, other ethnic minorities that have been fighting for decades over control of resource-rich territory are coming forward to voice their concerns over past documented atrocities, also carried out by the Myanmar military. The mountainside village of Pain Lone in Shan State was the site of such conflict last fall between government forces and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an armed ethnic group based in the region, panicking students scrambling for cover as their afternoon classes were ending. "The sound of the helicopters was very terrifying and the loud explosions falling around the village were terrible,” recalls local instructor U Maung Chone, who teaches in the remote mountain settlement.“ It doesn’t matter if they are falling in the town or just in the area. The explosions were very frightening for the kids,” the 45-year-old said, adding that he’d never seen army helicopters in more than two decades of teaching..."