Burma coup resistance notes February 24, 2024
Karen forces slaughter junta near Tavoy; military draft shows more unforeseen consequences; junta battalions flee the Arakan Army; Kachin seize key positions; Shan force joins the fight.
Arakan-------------------
The Arakan Army has warned all remaining junta troops in the state to surrender. Two junta battalions in Myepon Township were so afraid that they burned their own camps on Feb. 18, destroying weapons and ammunition, and were then airlifted to Ann Township by helicopter. The AA then took possession of the burned camps. (Khit Thit Media 2/18, 2/24)
The AA seized two more junta camps in Maungdaw Township, bordering Bangladesh, on Feb. 19 and 23, despite junta airstrikes, making for 5 camps captured in the past week. Inside the camps the AA found weapons, ammunition, and dead troops. The rest fled but were being hunted down. (People's Spring 2/20)
The AA captured the main police barracks in Punnajon town on Feb. 22, only 20 km from the state capital Sittwe and on the same peninsula. The AA has also mounted a week-long siege of the military training school in Ann Township. (Khit Thit Media 2/23)
As the AA closes in, the junta is expelling non-resident travelers who arrive in Kyauk Phyu, the coastal Arakan city where China is building its rail and pipeline terminus. (Khit Thit Media 2/19)
Kachin-------------------
The Kachin army and allied PDFs seized a junta camp the morning of Feb. 17 in Mansi Township. Jets responded with airstrikes. (The 74 Media 2/17) Elsewhere in Mansi, the Kachin army took over another camp at Sikanji since Feb. 19 after a 2-day battle. It is located strategically on the road from Mandalay to the Kachin capital Myitkyina, and was HQ to 2 battalions. More than 40 dead troops were found in the camp along with at least 50 weapons, and 12 troops were captured alive. Some of the dead were from the junta’s own airstrikes, which also killed 5 civilians and injured 7 others. (Mizzima 2/19, Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/23)
Three days after that, the Kachin seized a 3rd camp and the town of Myo Hla in Shweku Township after junta troops abandoned the camp there. (Khit Thit Media 2/23)
Some junta forces are trying to recapture Mawlu town in northeastern Sagaing Region, which was liberated by the Kachin army on Dec. 13.
Karenni-------------------
A day after Karenni forces took control of Shadaw town on Feb. 13, the junta vacated two Thai border camps, evacuating the remaining troops by helicopter. Karenni forces then cleared the camps. The Karenni Army also attacked a third camp. (Than Lwin Times 2/17)
A junta soldier and an officer have been arrested by Karenni defense forces in connection with the murder of 3 women and 3 children in Shadaw Township on Feb. 5. The victims were kidnapped as human shields and guides, and then shot to death. (The Irrawaddy B 2/18)
Kawthoolei-------------------
Karen army Brigade 4 and allied PDFs ambushed a 17-vehicle junta supply convoy on the Tavoy-Htee Khee road on Feb. 21, capturing and destroying 7 of the trucks and killing about 30 of the 300 troops on board, shown in a video. Seven Karen soldiers also died. An officer was captured, as were many weapons. The convoy left Tavoy city on Feb. 17 to take food to remote camps. (Karen Information Center 2/22)
In Mutraw District, the junta has had to withdraw its administrative offices from Papun town back to Kamamaung on the southern edge of the District, after the Kawthoolei government (KNU) warned junta staff to leave Papun. (Karen Information Center 2/23) This leaves the junta with hardly any administrative footprint in Mutraw, and only a scattering of remaining military posts. The district is mostly liberated.
The junta has built guard posts at all entrances to Karen State capital, Pa’an, and bunkers at army and government offices there, fearing imminent attack. Karen army troops were reported 15 km away on Feb. 17, and the junta is worried about its former lackeys, the BGF, attacking the city. (Karen Information Center 2/18)
Shan------------------
A new fight broke out between the northern Shan SSPP ethnic army and the junta and its lackey Pa-O milita, the PNO, on Feb. 21, in Maingpon, east of Taunggyi city. Two days later the SSPP and allied forces advanced westward and captured a junta camp on the road toward Hopong and Taunggyi. The SSPP had not fought for months, but on Feb. 22 it declared its intention to fight till the downfall of the illegal junta. (Khit Thit Media 2/22)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
Kalay PDFs and Chin forces in Sagaing Region recaptured Sekant village, 5 km south of Kalay city, on Feb. 22, and a day later they overran 2 pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee terrorist camps. In September 2023 junta troops attempted to march south from Kalay to reopen the road to Gangaw, held by PDFs, but only got as far as Sekant before being stopped by the PDFs and Chin forces. The troops then destroyed Sekant and neighboring villages and set up camp there, but this week the PDF/Chin ejected them again. Fighting raged all around Kalay. The junta troops left the area heavily landmined, so the Revolution forces are having to clean it before residents can return. (Zalen 2/23)
PDFs in Minhla Township of Bago Region attacked a junta column of 40 troops on Feb. 18, killing 15 and wounding 7. Then 25 reinforcements were sent, and were ambushed with grenades, killing 10 and wounding 7 more. More reinforcements were sent, and in a 3rd clash the PDFs say 15 more junta troops were killed and 2 wounded. The PDFs now control a critical road junction. (People's Spring 2/19)
PDFs confronted junta troops in Palay Township in Sagaing Region on Feb. 18 and fought for an hour. The PDFs say they killed 10 junta troops, but a helicopter arrived and fired on the PDFs, killing a commander. (Khit Thit Media 2/18)
In Tantse Township of Sagaing Region, PDFs attacked and destroyed a junta police barracks and camp on Feb. 21, but had to withdraw when helicopters counter-attacked. The 50 or so junta troops stationed there were killed or driven out. (The 74 Media 2/21) The junta then began burning and destroying nearby villages. (Khit Thit Media 2/23)
After junta troops recaptured Kawlin town in Sagaing Region and began destroying it, they are trying to do the same thing in liberated Shwe Pyi Aye town. So far, the PDFs have succeeded in holding them off. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/20) Troops have also destroyed Momeik town in northwestern Shan State after the Kachin army was not able to hold it.
Junta decline------------------
After the junta announced nationwide military conscription and thousands of young people applied to join Revolutionary forces, junta agents set up fake Facebook PDF pages to entrap young people wanting to join the resistance. Some have been rounded up already. Urban guerrilla groups are warning people to beware. (Khit Thit Media 2/18)
Tens of thousands of people are mobbing the Mandalay passport office since the Feb. 10 military conscription announcement, trying to get out of the country. On Feb. 18 two women were crushed to death in the stampede and another broke a leg. The high demand for passports is leading to large bribes being charged for the limited numbers of applications available. (Khit Thit Media 2/19)
Urban guerrillas detonated a series of bombs near junta admin offices in Hlangthaya Township in Yangon on Feb. 18, targeting them because of their role in enforcing the new junta military conscription. (People's Spring 2/18)
A spokesman for a leading Civil Disobedience (CDM) service said it had published a help hotline after the military conscription announcement, and received over 1000 calls within a few days. He categorized the callers as those wanting to get to a liberated area and take up arms against the regime, those wanting to go merely to seek shelter from the conscription, those who want to go and contribute their non-military skills to the Revolution, and finally those wanting to leave the country. (Khit Thit Media 2/20)
The junta has kidnapped more than 400 Rohingya men and is forcing them into its local support militia in Arakan State, where it is rapidly losing ground to the Arakan Army. (Mizzima 2/23)
On Feb. 21 junta dictator Min Aung Hlaing claimed that women will not be included in the new military draft, in contradiction to the Feb. 10 announcement. Also, several of the teenage children of junta officers have fled to Thailand to escape the draft. (Khit Thit Media 2/19)
The southern Shan RCSS militia showed its pro-junta loyalty by declaring its own military conscription policy in its territories, even worse than the junta’s – all adults are required to serve for 6 years. The RCSS threatens to steal the homes of families whose young people flee abroad. (Shan News 2/19) The northern Shan SSPP militia is likewise carrying out forced conscription and trying to suppress the news about it. (Shwe Phee Myay 2/20) This contrasts sharply with Revolutionary ethnic armies like the Karen, Karenni, Kachin, and Pa-O which have an abundance of volunteers arriving from majority Burman areas.
The Kawthoolei government (KNU), Arakan Army, northern Shan SSPP, and a Mon group promise to accommodate young people who seek refuge from the junta’s conscription law in their territories. On Feb. 21 a junta administrator who was trying to organize a pro-junta local militia was assassinated in Saw Ti Township of occupied Klwer Lwi Htoo District in Kawthoolei. (Myaelatt Athan 2/22)
Farm owners are complaining that they can’t get workers because the workers are fleeing the military draft. Food production could suffer a further setback. (Myaelatt Athan 2/20)
The Pa-O ethnic army (PNLA) says the junta has been abandoning its troops killed in its ongoing attempts to retake Sisaing town in southern Shan State. Junta battalions leave their dead lying on the ground, and it’s up to the Pa-O to cremate them.
This is important because when the bodies aren’t recovered, the junta pays no death benefits to the families, and counts the soldiers as “missing”, as if they had deserted or surrendered. Then the families are evicted from army housing with no livelihood. (The Irrawaddy B 2/21) Thousands of junta troops have deserted, surrendered, or defected to the opposition since Operation 10/27 began.
Terrorism--------------------
When the junta retook Momeik town in northwestern Shan State from the Kachin army in January, it killed 102 civilians, including a woman and 3 underage girls whom the troops raped first in front of their families. A man in his 60s was tied upside down and burned to death. The junta then blamed the murders on PDFs via its propaganda channels. (Khit Thit Media 2/19)
Some residents of Sisaing in southern Shan State, which is now held by ethnic Pa-O forces, tried to return to their homes to retrieve some goods on Feb. 19, but junta troops fired a mortar that hit their truck and killed 7 civilians. (Than Lwin Khet News 2/20)
The junta is firing incendiary bombs into Loikaw city in Karenni State, as part of its terrorist campaign to destroy all communities it cannot control. The bombs are starting large fires that consume neighborhoods. Karenni defense forces control more than half of the city. (Mekong News 2/22) The junta is likewise bombing Paletwa, Yanbwe, and other liberated towns.
Political and economic-------------------
A large lead, zinc, copper, and silver mine in Namatu Township of northern Shan State is now under the control of the expanded Ta’ang administration. Its revenues will now accrue to that administration instead of the junta, allowing the Ta’ang government to provide public services as well as proceed with the war of liberation. (The Irrawaddy E 2/20)
Thailand’s military-backed regime claims to want to facilitate humanitarian aid to the Burma refugees coming across its border. But to do that it wants to collaborate with the same illegal Naypyitaw regime that’s deliberately causing the humanitarian crisis, which the Thai regime already supports diplomatically and economically. (Mizzima 2/20) This contradiction indicates a lack of serious intent. Another contradiction is the Thai prime minister’s pledge to crack down and prosecute young people crossing the border clandestinely in the wake of the Naypyitaw regime’s announcement of military conscription. He is promising to both help and punish the refugees created by the regime he supports.
A Japanese mafia boss and a Thai accomplice were charged by American authorities with a terrorist plot to sell weapons-grade plutonium from Burma to Iran, and for trying to sell anti-aircraft missiles to an unnamed ethnic army in Burma. (Mizzima 2/22) Who supplied the plutonium in Burma isn’t stated. While nuclear weapons proliferation is extremely dangerous to the world as a whole, Burma resistance forces are badly in need of anti-aircraft missiles to stop the slaughter of civilians and the destruction of communities. Verbal supporters of Burma’s pro-democracy movement have supplied zero protection against the murderous airstrikes.
-စီၤ ထံဆၢ