Burma coup resistance notes June 14, 2024
The Kachin renew their headlong advance; losing on many fronts, the junta re-opens conflict in northern Shan; Arakan village massacred and Sagaing monastery blasted with people inside.
Kachin-------------------
The Kachin army captured a junta base in Tanai Township on June 10. The next day it attacked and captured 6 large junta camps and 5 smaller ones simultaneously in Waingmaw Township, east of the state capital Myitkyina along a road toward the China border. Junta troops then abandoned 7 other nearby camps, which were then cleared by the Kachin. Some of these were camps of junta-aligned local militias. The Kachin liberated the town of Sadon, seized weapons, and took some prisoners. Sadon controls access to the China border at Kanpaitdi. (Khit Thit Media 6/12)
Video taken by victorious Kachin army troops as they occupied a strategic 2-battalion junta camp in Sadon town, Waingmaw Township. (Mizzima 6/13)
On June 13 the Kachin took 2 more camps in eastern Waingmaw Township and say they destroyed a tank. (Kachin News Group 6/14) The southern part of Waingmaw Township had already been cleared of the junta’s presence, and now the eastern part is as well, except for one remaining camp in Kanpaitdi town, which is a border crossing point to China.
The Kachin army and local PDFs attacked junta forces in Kathah Township of northern Sagaing Region, adjacent to Kachin State, on June 14, as the Waingmaw campaign was still in full swing. No outcome had been reported by press time. (Kachin News Group 6/14)
Chin-------------------
Chin defense forces, with the support of the Arakan Army and PDFs, began the liberation of Matupi town on June 9, and on June 13 they stormed the police barracks and the administration complex. Junta troops retreated. Jets began bombing and destroying the town. The Chin are now working on a remaining junta battalion camp in Matupi. (Khit Thit Media 6/14) The Chin have already liberated Tonzang, Rikawdar, Jindway, and 8 other towns in Chin State.
Arakan-----------------
The Arakan Army overcame and captured a junta base in Maungdaw Township after a 3-day assault on June 12. Nearly 400 junta border police troops and dependents were captured.
When defeated junta border guards and their families fled their camps in Maungdaw Township on June 7, they boarded 2 amphibious landing craft in the Bay of Bengal in heavy surf. One of those craft overturned, and 4 family members drowned; the rest returned to the beach where they were captured by the Arakan Army. (Khit Thit Media 6/10) The AA captured 6 junta camps in Maungdaw Township during the first week of June.
During last week’s camp seizures in Maungdaw Township, 290 junta troops were taken prisoner. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 6/11)
Junta troops have ordered residents to evacuate 12 villages in the junta-held enclave of Sittwe Township, and are demolishing the villages. No reason was given, but the Arakan Army has encircled the state capital and a final assault is anticipated. The residents are being taken to Sittwe as hostages. (Than Lwin Khet News 6/11) Junta troops massacred 76 residents of another village in this area on May 29.
A report says that junta troops are ordered to defend the Ngapali Beach resort area of Thandwe Township at all costs, because it contains several luxury hotels built and owned by junta members and cronies. The hotels are on land seized from local people without compensation, and some were built for an anticipated wave of Russian tourists. Airstrikes have already damaged some of the hotels. (Myanmar Now 6/13) At least 64 civilians, and possibly well over 100, were massacred in a nearby village last week.
Kawthoolei-------------------
A cumulative report from Beit-Tavoy District’s K’ser Doh Township (Thayetchaung) says that confrontations have been occurring almost continuously between the junta and Karen-led forces since mid-May. During that time the junta has shelled villages and perpetrated murders and atrocities against civilians, as previously reported, but the resistance forces didn’t retreat and continue fighting. They say at least 30 junta troops and 4 resistance soldiers have been killed. (Khit Thit Media 6/9)
In nearby Ye Phyu Township, resistance forces confronted 200 junta troops and killed an officer and 6 other soldiers on June 7. The junta had been firing mortars into civilian villages, killing and wounding adults and babies. (Than Lwin Times 6/11)
At a critical Salween River bridge on the Asia Highway in Pa’an, the junta-occupied capital of Karen State, police are stopping and examining all travelers and kidnapping young males for forced military training. (Salween Press 6/12)
Northern Shan-------------------
Junta jets dropped 500-pound bombs on a Ta’ang army base in Momeik Township on June 9, wounding some Ta’ang soldiers. (People's Spring 6/10) The Ta’ang army (TNLA) had already warned that recent junta aggression would lead to the end of the January ceasefire and the renwal of hostilities. An attack like this increases the likelihood that the TNLA will again open an offensive against the junta, which it drove back with devastating losses between October and January.
Increasing this likelihood, the junta has sent 1,500 troops to Lashio and blocked or destroyed roads leading to the northern Shan towns it still controls, including Lashio, Kyaukme, and Thibaw, in apparent anticipation of TNLA attacks. The closure blocks civilian traffic vital to the local economy and well-being. Ta’ang troops have also been massing around these towns. (Shwe Phee Myay 6/13) Not content to be losing on the fronts already active, the bone-headed junta is picking another fight in a previously quiescent area. This obtuseness mirrors the regime’s strategy of more force where the use of force has already backfired.
The Kachin army also operates in Momeik Township and has recently launched an effort to retake the town, which it was able to capture for one week in January before relinquishing it back to the junta, which then committed massacres and destruction in the town.
The United Wa State, which is operationally more Chinese than Burmese and is completely separate from Burmese control, officially annexed Hopan Township as one of its districts. (Shwe Phee Myay 6/14) Hopan was liberated from junta control by the Kokang army during Operation 10/27 and then handed over to the Wa State.
Karenni-----------------
The junta has systematically bombed both hospitals and schools in Karenni State – a war crime - attempting to deny the people vital public services. Despite that, the interim Karenni government has managed to open 60 hospitals and clinics, which it says have served 50,000 patients in the past year. They have to operate in secret locations and caves to avoid the bombing. (Kantarawaddy Times 6/12) Over half the population of Karenni State, or more than 250,000 people, are living as refugees due to junta violence.
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
PDFs in Monywa Township stormed a guard camp near the junta’s northeast regional military HQ on June 11, killing about 20 troops, capturing 5 alive, and seizing all the weapons in the camp. (People's Spring 6/12) PDFs in and around Monywa have been mounting small attacks on junta checkpoints and gates almost constantly, with drone bombs and sudden guerrilla assaults.
Two PDF soldiers in Otpo Township of Bago Region turned traitor and defected to the junta, then led a column of 56 junta troops to the location of the PDF camp. The PDF anticipated them, and blew up the head of the column with landmines, then opened fire, killing at least 7 troops and wounding 6. (Khit Thit Media 6/13)
Urban warfare------------------
Urban guerrillas bombed a junta police post at a bridge in North Okalappa Township of Yangon on Jan. 10, wounding some officers. The next day the Dark Shadaw urban PDF set off explosions at the junta township admin office in Shwepyitha in Yangon. (Khit Thit Media 6/12) On June 12 an urban tiger group bombed a junta police station in Mingaladon Township of northern Yangon. (Mizzima 6/13)
On the other hand, the junta caught 9 other urban guerrillas before they could carry out a grenade attack on a bridge opening ceremony attended by dictator Min Aung Hlaing. Death by torture is the usual fate of captured resistance fighters.
Junta decline------------------
Local junta administrators who can’t fulfill their required quota of forced recruits for the army are fleeing, just like the young men they are trying to recruit. They are liable to penalties for failure to fill their quotas. The junta is now preparing to kidnap young women as well to fill the growing soldier shortage. (Khit Thit Media 6/10)
The National Unity Government (NUG) says that 45 junta troops and police defected to resistance forces during May. (People's Spring 6/11) These are the public defections; there are also secret desertions, but they are difficult to quantify.
Terrorism--------------------
On June 4 the junta received a tip that the Arakan Army was in Sinkaung village near Thandwe city, and launched a 2-day attack with airstrikes, naval guns, and ground forces, wiping out the village and killing an unknown number of civilians, believed to be over 100. Survivors fled as refugees. Thus far at leat 64 dead have been buried. The actual battle was in another village closer to the airport. (The Irrawaddy B 6/9)
A spy reported to the junta about a community leadership meeting in a Buddhist monastery Sagaing Township on June 8. Jets then came and dropped 9 bombs, killing 2 Buddhist monks, a local couple, and 4 civil defense policemen and destroying the monastery. (Myaelatt Athan 6/9)
Planes bombed Pauktaw town in Arakan State on June 11, injuring at least 10 civilians and destroying homes. (People's Spring 6/11) Pauktaw has been liberated since Jan. 19 and junta troops cannot approach anywhere near, so this was not a strategic attack, only a terrorist raid meant to cause casualties, damage, and intimidation.
Political and economic-------------------
The National Unity Government (NUG) is working to develop an internet network independent from junta control in liberated areas. A spokesman didn’t give details yet, saying only that meetings are planned, but Starlink satellite recivers have already made a big difference for internet access in liberated areas. (People's Spring 6/9) Liberated governments and schools as well as resistance military forces have made widespread use of Starlink already, enabling communication free from the junta’s Chinese-style draconian controls.
Some business owners increased the salaries paid to their staffs recently, or switched to paying employees in the more stable Thailand currency (Thai baht), in response to the rampant post-coup inflation caused by the junta's economic incompetence. On June 13 the junta abducted the owners and shut their businesses, blaming them for causing the inflation rather than responding to it. (Myaelatt Athan 6/13) Once again, the regime's attempts to force the economy and markets has led to negative consequences, to which the junta's response is more force.
Thugs of the Thai military regime raided a support office of the Burma resistance movement in Mae Sot, the Thai border town facing Myawaddy in Kawthoolei, on June 10. They assaulted a Burma citizen working there, ordered the office to close, and stole flags of the People’s Defense Forces and of Burma’s majority political party, the NLD, as well as photos of Burma’s civilian leaders. (The Irrawaddy B 6/11)
Another authoritarian government, that of China, also aided the illegal Naypyitaw regime this week when it delivered 6 coast guard ships to the junta. They had been requested by the civilian NLD government in 2018 but not given until now when a military dictatorship is in power. (Tanintharyi Times 6/12)
- စီၤ ထံဆၢ
I think that these nexts few battles in Chin, Arakan, and Shan states will be very important and will determine how long the war will last. This month is going to be tense. Thanks for continually reporting on the situation and keeping us up to date.