Burma coup resistance notes January 4, 2023
PDFs capture junta supplies in river attack; junta military hospitals overflowing with wounded; independence day pageant flops.
Public defense forces captured a junta supply barge last night in the Chindwin River. The barge was being led by a navy boat. Local PDFs in Kani township fired on the barge, killing 2 troops. The rest jumped off into the water. The PDFs captured the barge (shown on video), unloaded the food and military equipment, and burned the barge. The navy boat became stranded; it has about 70 troops on board and is being monitored. (Than Lwin Khet News)
Ethnic regions-------------------
More news on the capture of 2 junta camps by Karen forces in southern Dooplaya District of Kawthoolei (Kyainseikgyi township on Burmese maps): The weapons from the camps have been captured and the camps have been burned and destroyed. The 3rd camp is still under attack. While junta troops were fighting on the front line, other Karen forces attacked their rear, capturing some troops as well as the wife of a battalion commander. The junta is bombing Kyainseikgyi town by air. (Mizzima, Ayeyarwaddy Times)
A military hospital in the junta-occupied Karen State capital, Hpa-an, has stopped accepting civilian patients because its 100 beds are continuously occupied by junta troops wounded in battle. (Karen Information Center)
Karen PDFs clashed with junta troops in 2 villages of Palaw township yesterday. A PDF soldier was captured while laying landmines ahead of the junta troops, and they tortured him to death and captured his rifle and pistol. Junta casualties aren’t reported yet. (People's Spring)
The ethnic Kokang army in northeastern Shan State has added its first non-Kokang brigade. Brigade 611 is made up of youths of multiple ethnicities of joined the Revolution and trained with the Kokang army (MNDAA). They just graduated from training and were issued their weapons, brand-new military assault rifles. (People's Spring)
Junta troops spontaneously fired mortars into a refugee camp in Demawso township today, killing a civilian woman. Yesterday they shelled the western suburbs of Loikaw town yesterday, killing another civilian and wounding 2 more. (People's Spring, Than Lwin Khet News)
In Arakan State, 3 senior officers of the ALP, a micro-armed group seen as siding with the junta vs. the Arakan Army, were assassinated today as they returned from a junta-sponsored independence day party in Sittwe, capital of Arakan State. The affiliation of the assassins isn’t known. (Ayeyarwaddy Times)
Junta scorched earth village terrorism campaign---------------
Junta troops burned Shwetaung village in Butalin township on Jan. 2, and burned a paraplegic old woman and tortured and shot a young man to death. (Myaelatt Athan)
Troops fired on Nagapauk village of Myaung township in Sagaing Region, driving the 4,000 residents into the bush yesterday. Then they looted people’s homes, loading stolen items onto boats to take away. They also killed and ate a cow belonging to a villager. (Myaelatt Athan)
Junta troops invaded Deipin village, Kyaungmyaung township, Sagaing Region for 2 days. When they left, a local PDF entered and found the houses burned down and the dead bodies of 2 civilians and 4 PDF soldiers who had been trying to defend the village. (Khit Thit Media)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
A PDF planted 4 roadside bombs ahead of a column of 60 marching junta troops in Kalay township of Sagaing Region yesterday and killed 4 and wounded 2. After the explosions, the troops shot their guns for 10 minutes. (People's Spring)
Two women got 2 junta policemen drunk yesterday and then drugged them and stole their weapons and mobile phones and gave them to the local PDF. This happened in Myaing town in Magway Region. (Khit Thit Media) The police who lost their weapons to the PDF are likely to face severe punishment.
Seventy junta troops on foot were escorting 3 ox carts full of food rations in Kani township yesterday when a local PDF began firing locally-manufactured mortars, and continued for 2.5 hours. A shell fell directly on one of the carts, destroying it utterly. (Khit Thit Media)
PDFs in Salingyi township fired 40 locally-manufactured mortar shells at a police barracks in Jadet village last night. Ten of the shells fell inside the barracks; 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm rounds were jused. Junta casualties aren’t known. (Ayeyarwaddy Times)
A Bago Region PDF bombed a junta admin office in Otpo town yesterday, slightly injuring a junta staff member. The office is involved in preparations for the junta’s fake election in August. (Khit Thit Media)
A military engineering PDF called the Shadow Group has improved the quality and safety of long-range mortar shells used by PDFs by using liquid aluminum casting rather than steel pipe welding. The new shells have parts that screw together and have a uniform shape. They have a range of up to 5 kilometers. (Than Lwin Khet News)
It is becoming increasingly dangerous to serve the junta in central Burma. In Mandalay Region a junta army veteran and dalan (regime spy) was assassinated in Nwatoji township yesterday and a military weapon was captured from him by the local PDF. (Mizzima) Yesterday morning 4 men on 2 motorcycles arrived in Dahyekaung village, Myitsone township, Mandalay Region, and demanded that a neighborhood junta administrator take them to the junta-appointed village chief. When he did that, the 4 men shot both of them dead. It isn’t known whether a PDF was involved. (Mizzima)
A PDF in Seikphyu township of Magway Region dropped bombs from a drone on junta troops in Tammakauk village on Jan. 1, killing 3 troops. The troops then turned on a drone signal jammer and caused the drone to crash. (Myaelatt Athan)
Also in Seikphyu township, a PDF was ambushed by junta troops 2 days ago Jan. 2 and suffered heavy losses. Thirteen out of 24 members of a detachment sent to carry out a military operation were killed, 9 were wounded, and 2 captured, likely to be murdered in captivity. Eight weapons, mostly home-made rifles, 5 motorcycles, and a few bullets were lost to the junta. Nine of the 13 dead were males. (Myaelatt Athan)
Urban warfare------------------
In Yangon Region, the junta-proxy political party, USDP, is threatening residents of Htantapin township to either join the party or have their homes demolished. (Ayeyarwaddy Times)
In Mandalay, an urban PDF hung a booby-trapped banner in a park in Maha Aung Myay township this morning with the anti-junta slogan, “Dog food revolution Mandalay”. Troops who came to remove it were blown up. A bomb also exploded today at a junta military office in the same township. (People's Spring)
Political and economic-------------------
On the 75th anniversary of Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948, the National Unity Government called for a ‘second independence’ by freeing the country from the grip of the illegal military regime. Russia, Nepal, and Cambodia were the only countries to send congratulations to the junta this year; last year China, India, Serbia, and North Korea also sent congratulations, but not this year. (People's Spring)
The American foreign minister, Anthony Blinken, chose Burma’s 75th anniversary of independence today to issue a statement of solidarity with the people of Burma against the violence of the illegal military regime. The USA has no intention of giving credence to the fake election planned for August 2023. (People's Spring)
As a publicity stunt in preparation for its fake election, the junta announced that it would release 7,000 prisoners today. In the event however, only a few of the 13,000+ political prisoners were released. (Myanmar Now) Historically, political prisoners released for these media photo-ops are often kidnapped again a day or so later unless they manage to escape during that time.
Also with a view to its fake election, the junta today handed out specious awards to representatives of its perceived foreign allies China and Japan. The current Chinese special envoy to the illegal regime and a former Japanese prime minister were given awards for their service to the regime. Dictator Min Aung Hlaing also awarded representatives of the regime’s proxy micro-militias from the Pa-O, Shanni, Kachin, Shan, and other ethnic minorities, as well as the racist ultra-nationalist fake monk Wirathu. (The Irrawaddy) The sham election is planned as a stunt to legitimize the Feb. 2021 coup d'état, and in order for it to work, the regime needs the approval of foreign governments.
-စီၤ ထံဆၢ