Burma coup resistance notes February 10, 2024
Junta slaughters children at school; more helicopters downed; Arakan Army advances by leaps and bounds; gruesome fire torture/murder of captured PDF fighters.
Arakan-------------------
Arakan troops shot down a transport helicopter sometime in January during fighting in Paletwa Township. The wreckage was not found and publicized until Feb. 3. (The Irrawaddy E 2/7) The junta lost 2 other helicopters in the past month and 3 jets have been shot down since the attempted coup.
Similarly, the AA sank 3 junta navy ships and damaged another; 3 remaining ships then retreated. At least one of the sunk ships may have been a landing craft, but details aren’t given. The action took place in an unamed river, most likely the Kalatan near Kyauktaw. (Mizzima B, People's Spring 2/9) The AA does not have a navy, so the ships must have been targeted from land.
After the seizure of 3 junta camps in Minbya, the town is now liberated. Almost 600 people surrendered to the AA and were evacuated in 4 trucks, but these included both troops and family members. (Burma News International 2/6) Kyauktaw and Myauk Oo towns are also under AA control.
The Arakan Army captured two more junta camp in Maungdaw Township on Feb. 4 and 5, at Taungpyo. At least 327 defeated troops fled into Bangladesh, and the AA captured their weapons and dead junta bodies. Other junta camps then began firing mortars at civilians, killing and injuring farmers, including at least 2 civilians killed inside Bangladesh, causing villagers in Bangladesh to flee. (People's Spring 2/5) Bangladesh has said it will help the defeated troops return to the junta. (The Irrawaddy E 2/7)
After capturing the Maungdaw border camps, the AA learned that the junta troops there had been selling their weapons, and drugs, to two Rohingya militia groups, the RSO and ARA, who took them into Bangladesh. Even so, the AA captured a huge cache of rifles, mortars, grenades, machine guns, ammunition, uniforms, computers, and other equipment from the defeated camps. (Khit Thit Media 2/8)
There is irony in junta troops fleeing into Bangladesh six years after they forced a million Rohingyas to do the same thing during the 2017 genocide.
Three other junta camps that the AA had been attacking fell this week. Camps in Kyauktaw and 2 in Myauk Oo were captured on Feb. 2, 5, and 8, respectively. Those were the last camps in Myauk Oo, now the entire township is liberated. (Myanmar Now 2/5, Mizzima E 2/9) The AA is rapidly rolling up junta positions in central and northern Arakan, and the junta seems powerless to stop the route.
A helicopter that bombed battle zones in Arakan State was shot and heavily damaged by the junta’s own gunners as it returned for a landing at the airport in Sittwe, the state capital, on Feb. 4. They though it might be a resistance drone. The junta then detained and beat the gunners. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/4)
As the AA gets closer to the state capital Sittwe and the junta prepares for its last defense, junta officers and families are shipping their vehicles and belongings to Yangon by sea ferry. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/8)
Kachin-------------------
The Kachin army attacked and seized yet another junta camp, near the entrance to Hpakant town, on Feb. 3. (People's Spring 2/3) At about the same time the junta abandoned another camp and a checkpoint, also in Hpakant Township. (Kachin News Group 2/5)
Kawthoolei-------------------
Karen army Brigade 2, the Burmese People’s Liberation Army, and PDFs from as far away as the Irrawaddy Delta suddenly attacked 5 targets including 3 junta battalion camps, a police barracks, and a bridge outpost on Feb. 7. They are all located in and around Zarapji in Htaw Ta Htoo Township (Htantapin) in Taw Oo District on Feb. 7. The police barracks, 2 battalion camps, and the bridge checkpoint were captured, Karen-led soldiers were in the town, and the bridge at Htaw Ta Htoo town was destroyed to prevent junta troop movement. The junta tried to send reinforcements and a tank from Taungoo but they couldn’t get there. Only one junta position still held out. (Myaelatt Athan, Khit Thit Media 2/7, People's Spring 2/8) Junta retaliatory airstrikes have killed at least 10 civilians thus far including 3 children. (Than Lwin Khet News 2/7)
Also in Taw Oo District, Karen army Brigade 2 and allied PDF overran a main junta camp at Mine Lone near Leikto on Feb. 2 after a 3-day battle. More than 20 junta troops were killed and food and ammunition were captured. (Khit Thit Media 2/5)
PDFs captured two more junta camps in Beit-Tavoy District. On Jan. 31 the PDFs took a camp in Sawpya village of Thayetchaung Township south of Tavoy city. The 30 junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee terrorists fled the camp as the Karen PDFs were attacking, and headed to another camp closer to Tavoy. (People's Spring 2/3) Then on Feb. 6 they took a camp east of Tavoy, where resistance was weak. (Karen Information Center 2/7) PDFs have been attacking closer to, and even in, Tavoy town.
In an ongoing battle in Doo Tha Htoo District, the Karen army has been besieging the junta’s Wintapan camp for a month. On Feb. 2 helicopters dropped 5 loads of food, medicines, and ammunition for its surrounded troops, but they were intercepted by the Karen. An army spokeswoman for the Karen said they wouldn’t eat the food, which could be poisoned, but they would make use of everything else. (Karen Information Center 2/3)
Karen army forces in Kaw T’Ree town (Kawkareik) cleared the area where junta officers had been living, and found evidence of fraudulent business activity including fake car license plates, foreign bank account documents, and counterfeit banknotes. (Khit Thit Media 2/4)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
The junta tried to retake liberated Shwe Pyi Aye town in Sagaing Region starting Jan. 17, but on Feb. 3 it had to retreat, leaving 15 dead bodies and some weapons. About 40 were wounded. PDF forces successfully defended the town from return to military rule. They then pursued the retreating junta troops. (Mizzima 2/3)
Junta forces are also trying to retake liberated Kawlin town. Between 800 and 1000 troops in 4 columns are assaulting Kawlin from multiple directions. . On Feb. 7 PDFs shot a transport helicopter, which was forced to make an emergency landing trailing smoke. On Feb. 8 junta troops fought their way into the city, but that evening defense forces assisted by the Kachin army pushed them back out again with the loss of weapons and an unknown number of casualties (Myaelatt Athan 2/9)
South of Kawlin in Kantbalu Township, a column of 150 junta troops that was destroying villages was confronted by the communist PLA militia on Feb. 7. The PLA says the junta suffered 40 to 50 casualties. (Khit Thit Media 2/9)
Junta decline------------------
As the junta tries to round up civilians at gunpoint to force into its army, it is focusing on relatively non-rebellious areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta and West Bago Region. Even there, however, the forced recruitment is causing revolt where it didn’t exist before. In Kanjitaung in the Delta, for example, loyal local junta-appointed administrators resigned their posts when forced to attend military training. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/5)
In Pathein in the Irrawaddy Delta, the junta forcibly conscripted 116 university instructors and students to attend military training from 2 to 6 weeks, after which these academics are to be sent to the front lines against battle-hardened PDFs and ethnic armies. Political analyst U Than Soe Naing predicted that the forced recruits will easily defect to the Revolutionary armies, and the desperation strategy will backfire. (The Irrawaddy E 2/8)
Youths in Bago Region are fleeing to avoid conscription. In Mahlaing Township of Mandalay Region the junta is demanding 20 youths from each village to join military training. Failure to submit recruits leads to fines of thousands of dollars. (People's Spring 2/7)
As the junta suffers repeated defeats on all fronts, dictator Min Aung Hlaing has shuffled 20 top command positions, hoping to get better results. Gen. Naing Naing Oo, the man in charge of Shan State operations when the junta the northern third of it, received a promotion to lieutenant general on Feb. 1. (The Irrawaddy B 2/4)
Terrorism--------------------
A gruesome video on social media shows pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee terrorists suspending 2 captured fighters of the Yaw Defense Force by chains and then lighting fires under them, roasting them to death as the terrorists cheer. This happened in Gangaw Township of Magway Region on Nov. 7, and the video was supplied by a defector on Feb. 3. (Myaelatt Athan 2/6)
Carry a weapon when anywhere near junta forces. Under no circumstances do you want to be captured alive by these monsters.
In Demawso, Karenniland, which the junta cannot control, jets bombed a school on Feb. 5, killing 4 children and inuring 10. (Mizzima 2/5) Again, targeting schools, hospitals, and refugee camps is a international war crime, and this is a terrorist regime.
Since the junta lost control of Sisaing town in southern Shan State on Jan. 24, it has begun a bombing campaign to destroy it. On. Feb. 3 it hit a large monastery housing 500 monks. (Khit Thit Media 2/4)
Troops shot 3 children and 3 women to death outside a village in Shadaw Township of Karenni State on Feb. 6. The murders were done at close range, it was not a case of stray fire or mistaken targets. (The Irrawaddy E 2/8)
Political and economic-------------------
The American legislature has formed a committee to ensure continuing support for Burma’s freedom movement regardless of American elections. The new Congressional Burma Caucus includes members of both the Democratic and Republican parties who agree to continue financial support for the National Unity Government, ethnic homeland governments, and cross-border aid organizations. (Khit Thit Media 2/4)
The chairman of the KNU stated that the Kawthoolei nation will be politically established as a step toward membership in a Myanmar federal union. He said this during a Feb. 5 televised speech, in anticipation of physical liberation from 75 years of Burmese military occupation. (KNU 2/5) At present Kawthoolei exists as an imprecisely-defined national ideal.
Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Sihasek Phuang Quang says the Thai military government wants to “resolve” the Myanmar crisis through humanitarian support and “negotiations” between the Naypyitaw terrorist regime and national Revolutionary forces. (People's Spring 2/7) As in other cases of external interference, he didn’t consult with those forces, who know that negotiations with systematic liars lead to meaningless agreements. Not to mention the impossibility of negotiating with a regime currently carrying out genocidal atrocities against its own population. The Thai regime has been a supporter of the attempted coup since it happened.
In Kutkai town, which is now under Ta’ang (TNLA) administration, phone lines and internet have begun working again. (Shwe Phee Myay 2/9) This is significant as an example of normal services resuming after liberation. The Naypyitaw junta is in no way indispensible for civil governance, and on the contrary is an impediment to it.
As townships of Arakan State become liberated from junta control, it isn’t clear if the Rohingya refugees who lived there before the 2017 genocide will be able to return from refugee camps in Bangladesh. Relations between the Arakan Army and the Rohingya community have not been good.
- စီၤ ထံဆၢ