Burma coup resistance notes March 3, 2023
Junta tries to hold off advancing ethnic armies; PDFs counter-attack junta terrorism in central Burma villages; atrocities against civilians continue.
Karenni defense forces surprised the junta with a lightning attack on two camps along the Thai border in Bawlake township on February 27. They captured the first one in a matter of minutes, but had to retreat before capturing the second one due to jet air strikes that killed 3 Karenni soldiers and wounded 15. Ten junta corpses were found in the first camp; other casualties aren’t known. The Karenni captured 10 junta weapons including two 120mm mortar launchers and shells, one of which was broken, however. (Kantarawaddy Times)
Karenni defense forces also killed 9 junta troops and captured 4 weapons in an attack in Pekhon township at Pyilon village the same day as the Bawlake attack. In the week before that, the Karenni intercepted 3 food convoys trying to get to camps in Shadaw township. When the junta tried to airlift the supplies by helicopter, the Karenni shot at the helicopter and prevented it from landing. The junta is now trying to send supplies and reinforcements down the Thai border from Shan State. (People's Spring)
In Chin State, the Chin defense forces also shot a junta helicopter with a drone as it tried to drop supplies in Htantalan on February 26, sending the copter fleeing back to Hakha trailing smoke. The supply load was dropped, then it exploded and burned. (People's Spring) The Chin forces report over 100 junta airstrikes in January and February 2023, intensifying after the Feb. 9 capture of Htantalan town by Chin defense forces. (Burma News International)
The Kachin army has also been in action against the junta. An invasion of Mansi township caused a 5-day battle at Zupja village in which at least 10 junta troops died. Two other battles occurred on Feb. 22 in Waingmaw township, in reaction to the junta trying to build a new base near the Kachin administrative capital at Laiza on the Chinese border. (Kachin News Group) The Kachin army was also involved in a battle in Kathah township of northern Sagaing Region on Feb. 27, in which it killed 11 junta troops and wounded about 20; the junta responded with a helicopter gunship. (People's Spring) In Hpakant, the junta has banned the shipment of commercial quantities of food, which is leading to hunger in the town. (The Irrawaddy)
In Kawthoolei, PDFs have mounted many attacks on junta occupation troops, particularly in Brigade 4 area (Tanintharyi Region on Burmese maps) and Brigade 3 area (Kyaukgyi township on Burmese maps). In Dawei, Thayetchaung, Palaw, and Kawthaung townships, PDF attacks killed 40 junta troops and wounded 10 during February. (Tanintharyi Times)
In Dooplaya District of Kawthoolei (Myawaddy township on Burmese maps), junta troops captured a lightly-manned Karen army camp in late February, then left again under heavy drone bombing by the Karen army and Federal Wings PDF, and the Karen retook the camp 2 days later. (Karen Information Center) Then on February 25 the Karen army and Red Dragon PDF attacked an isolated junta police barracks at Xrotherpler (Payathonsu on Burmese maps), killing 11 troops including an officer; one Karen soldier also died.
In central Burma, the news in Sagaing Region includes two large PDF counter-attacks on junta troops conducting terrorist attacks on villages. In Shwebo township on Feb. 22 PDFs laid landmines ahead of the junta’s advance, then fired on the survivors, killing 25 and wounding 18. In Khin Oo township on Feb. 27 a similar counter-attack killed 19 junta troops, while 2 people’s soldiers died. (Khit Thit Media) Junta airstrikes during a battle in Ayadaw township on Feb. 22 killed 7 PDF soldiers, and troops murdered 6 unarmed civilians in Tartai village of Myinmu township Feb. 27 and March 1, beheading two boys. (The 74 Media)
Just to the south in Magway Region, a large PDF coalition captured a junta camp at Kukkolsu in Pauk township on Feb. 22, killing 2 junta troops and causing 30 to flee; the PDFs had to leave the camp when a helicopter arrived and began firing. (Myaelatt Athan) A helicopter also sprayed a school with machine gun fire in a liberated area of Myaing township on Feb. 25. (People's Spring) War crimes such as firing on schools are standard practice for the terrorist regime. In Yesagyo township, five pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee terrorists, 3 men and 2 women, were trying to force Gwetji village to become a junta camp on Feb. 25 when a local PDF came and shot them dead. (People's Spring)
In Mandalay Region, 21 political prisoners were being transported back to prison from an appearance at one of the regime’s kangaroo courts on March 1, when 9 of them grabbed police weapons, shot at police and wounded 2 of them, then escaped. PDFs also raided a gold mine company in Thabeitjin township owned by junta general Myo Khine on March 1, shutting it down. (Khit Thit Media)
In Naypyitaw, the military capital, there were 2 attacks lately, one with long-range locally-made missiles, another with a remotely-detonated bomb. In the economic capital Yangon, urban PDFs attacked a junta intelligence (where interrogation and torture are done) in North Okalappa township on Feb. 23, killing at least 10 junta personnel. (People's Spring) There were urban guerrilla bombings in Kyimyindaing, Tarmwe, Hlaing Thar Yar, North Okkala, South Okkala, and North Dagon townships. Pyu Saw Htee terrorists searching for a CDM teacher in Hlegu township on Feb. 22 failed to find him, so they killed 5 members of his family including a 3-year-old boy. (Khit Thit Media)
The junta murdered 2 CDM nurses. On February 16 troops stopped a nurse and 2 accompanying PDF soldiers in Otpo township of Bago Region as they went to assist a complicated childbirth; the troops raped and killed nurse Ma May Zun Moe, then burned her body, and tortured the 2 PDF soldiers to death. Troops also murdered a CDM nurse in Hpakant township of Kachin State.
Junta mortar attacks on villages killed and wounded a number of civilians in their homes in Kawthoolei’s Kler Lwi Htoo District, Chin State, and other locations.
Junta sources say it has cut spending on the military medical system by more than half, despite escalating troop injuries, and will increasingly make soldiers and their families pay for their care. Already many of the medications used are substandard or expired. (Khit Thit Media) The junta’s inability to pay for care for its troops has not stopped it from importing jet fuel for air strikes and purchasing new weapons from Russia.
-စီၤ ထံဆၢ