Burma coup resistance notes March 23, 2024
Kachin roll back junta rapidly; urban guerrillas blow up junta officers playing golf; junta conscription meets vehement resistance; the UN’s impotent hand-wringing.
Kachin-------------------
The progress of the Kachin army in March mirrors that of Operation 10/27 in northern Shan in late 2023. Junta positions are falling at a rate of 2 or more per day. Sumprabum town is now liberated. The remaining junta troops in the town surrendered to the Kachin army on March 17. The Kachin continued to attack the only remaining junta camp in the township. (People's Spring 3/17)
After the fall of Sumprabum, junta family members began stampeding out of Puta-O by civilian air flights. Puta-O is north of Sumprabum and is now cut off for land travel. (Mizzima 3/18)
The area around the free Kachin capital Laiza is now mostly junta-free, and the Kachin have moved on to Momauk and Tanai Townships. On March 18 they took a camp at Namkan Shwehmaw in Tanai Township, two more on the Myitkyina-Banmaw road the next day, 3 more on March 21, and another on March 22.
The Kachin have cleared out almost 30 junta camps since the start of Operation 03/07 on March 7. On March 21 the junta destroyed a bridge on the way to the state capital Myitkyina, fearing the imminent approach of the rapidly-advancing Kachin army.
Arakan-------------------
The Arakan Army defeated all 3 junta battalions in Rathedaung Township this week and took possession of Rathedaung town on March 17. About 200 troops were evacuated by sea. Some of the Muslim men recently conscripted by the junta and given two weeks of training were found killed after the battle. Weapons and ammunition were captured.
Nine towns are now controlled by the AA, which continues to close in on the remaining junta positions in the northern half of the state. (Khit Thit Media 3/18)
Kawthoolei-------------------
Last week Karen army Brigade 6 captured a key junta base and a police barracks at Thinganyinaung near the gates of the Myawaddy border city, but two more camps remained. On March 15 the Karen Cobras overran one of them, the junta Battalion 356 camp, and captured weapons, and began a fundraising drive to replenish ammunition and other supplies to pursue the last remaining junta troops in the area. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/18)
Also in Dooplaya District, after the Karen army captured a key junta base at Kyaikdon on March 14, nearby border camps fell in domino fashion. Karen and NUG Special Operations forces drone-bombed the camps relentlessly, and cleared out a camp at Mae Thayaw Hta on March 18, capturing over 60 weapons and killing at least 5 junta troops. The rest of the junta soldiers, 48 of them, fled across the border to Per Kler town in Thailand where they were disarmed by the Thai army. The next day, March 19, the Karen cleared out another enemy camp at Jophyuchetpwint, capturing over 60 weapons. (People's Spring 3/20) Two days later on March 21 a third camp collapsed when all 26 troops at Yetalyauk crossed the border to Per Kler and turned themselves over to Thai authorities. (Karen Information Center 3/21) The Thai army returned the Burmese troops to the junta via the Myawaddy border crossing on March 21. The whole southern border of Dooplaya District is now junta-free.
Karen army and NUG Special Operations soldiers fighting their way into the junta camp at Kyaikdon, Dooplaya District, Kawthoolei. (Special Operations Group 3/18)
A battle re-started in Metta, Tavoy Township, Beit-Tavoy District from March 10 to 17. Karen army Brigade 4 and the “flying battalion” 27 from Brigade 6 attacked junta battalions assembled in a hilltop camp in Metta after fleeing other camps, and aircraft bombed and destroyed a hospital. After the fighting subsided, Karen forces found 6 civilians shot to death by junta troops, including children, as well as 14 dead rotten junta soldiers that the Karen said smelled too bad to get close enough to photograph. One was a commander. Three Karen soldiers were also killed and others wounded. The surrounded junta troops are still holding out in their hilltop camp. (Tanintharyi Times 3/16)
The 7th Brigade has been the Karen army’s do-nothing brigade, only sending its soldiers to fight elsewhere. This week, however, the Brigade 7 KNDO battalion attacked a junta convoy, damaging 2 trucks and capturing 11 troops and their weapons and a bulldozer near the Thai border. (Salween Press 3/19)
Karen army Brigade 5 launched an attack on 500 junta forces on the outskirts of Papun town in Mutraw District on March 19. Junta aircraft then and drones then flew around the area for 2 days, dropping over 200 bombs on villages in all 3 Mutraw District townships March 19-20. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/20)
The Yangon-Mawlamyaing railroad was blown up again in Thaton Township of Doo Tha Htoo District on March 18. About 6 wagons derailed and the tracks were destroyed. Then, junta crews attempting to repair the bridge and tracks had to stop due to drone bombing. This railroad is used by the junta to ship ammunition, army food, and troops. Who did it isn’t reported. Train service was stopped for the rest of the week. (The Irrawaddy B 3/20, Than Lwin Times 3/21)
The Karen army and Mon armed groups are now in control of National Highway 8 between Ye in Mon State and Tavoy in Kawthoolei’s Beit-Tavoy District. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/20) This cuts off the junta’s land access to the southern panhandle, leaving only sea routes.
Karenni----------------
Karenni defense forces captured a junta police barracks at Saung Paung in Pinlaung Township of southern Shan State on March 19. (People's Spring 3/19) Both the Karenni and Pa-O armed forces are pushing the junta backward in southern Shan.
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
The narrative of an 11-day battle in Kani town of Sagaing Region March 2-12 has emerged. A coalition of PDFs fought their way into Kani town. The PDFs made extensive use of fixed-wing drone bombing. Then on March 12 junta jets and helicopters launched airstrikes and 200 junta reinforcements arrived, and the PDFs had to cede control of the town back to the junta. During the battle 47 junta troops and 11 PDF soldiers were killed, and 35 PDF were wounded. The PDFs captured guns and ammunition as well as mortar rounds and drone jammers. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/16)
PDFs in Myinchan Township of Magway Region got a tip-off from a watermelon source that a column of 60 junta troops would be conducting terrorist attacks on villages there, so they prepared an ambush that killed at least 10 and wounded 5 of the troops, on March 14. The junta corroborated the losses. (Myaelatt Athan 3/17)
Urban warfare------------------
A Yangon urban guerrilla group disguised as police officers invaded the regional junta HQ and detonated a bomb where officers were playing golf, on March 22. The blast killed 20 junta members including 7 officers. (Khit Thit Media 3/23)
The junta has been trying to auction off Daw Aung Suu Kyi’s Yangon house, which it does not own. On March 18 the office handling the attempted auction, the Bahan Township municipal building, was bombed by an urban guerrilla group. Two junta police were killed. (People's Spring 3/19) When the auction was held on March 19, no bidders appeared, and it was called off. (Myanmar Now 3/20)
In Mandalay an urban PDF fired a missile that caused an explosion at a corporate office owned by the son of dictator Min Aung Hlaing on March 18, where the military conscription is being conducted. (Khit Thit Media 3/19)
Junta decline------------------
Two young men forced to join the junta army escaped from their training in Hleku Township of Yangon Region with 4 guns. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/17) Two others from Pyapon Township of Irrawaddy Region killed themselves when the junta conscription board selected them. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/18) In Ngaputaw Township of Irrawaddy Region, all the sons of junta administrators were spared from the draft lottery, showing that the corruption that pervades the regime extends to the conscription process as well. (Khit Thit Media 3/19) The junta threatened families of young people who flee to avoid the military draft, and has banned domestic and international travel by young people without a government endorsement letter. It also banned Arakan people in Yangon from traveling. (Myaelatt Athan 3/18, Mekong News, Western News 3/19) Across the border in Thailand, that country’s military regime, an ally of the illegal Naypyitaw junta, has beefed up border patrols to prevent young people escaping Burma’s conscription. (Khit Thit Media 3/22)
Meanwhile, Revolutionary groups all over Burma are warning that they will retaliate against anyone acting to carry out the junta’s conscription. They have begun a wave of assassinations of conscription operatives, killing at least 17 already. (The Irrawaddy E 3/21)
Rebel groups also continue to train classes of new volunteers to their maximum capacity, and are having to turn some away since the junta began conscripting young people. The new draft has sparked the biggest surge in resistance enrollment since the immediate post-coup period. The Sagaing Federal Council, a Revolutionary governance body, has set up a support service to help conscripted youths escape to safety. Some districts in southern Shan State are empty of young people, who have left to avoid the draft. (Mekong News 3/21)
The conscription has led to labor shortages in Yangon factories and other businesses around the country, as young workers go into hiding to escape the draft. (Khit Thit Media 3/22)
The new conscription is turning out to be as successful as the junta’s sham election plan. It is not only going nowhere, it is backfiring spectacularly.
Some of the junta’s 31 weapons and equipment factories have had to cease operating because PDFs now threaten their security, and because so many of the soldier-workers have been sent away to the front lines. Other workers have deserted the army and gone to the PDFs. Some roads needed by the factories have become deadly due to PDF bombs, and are no longer used. Ten factories have reportedly stopped operations, and in some, the few remaining workers only turn on the machinery to keep it from deteriorating. They do maintenance rather than production. In some factories, officers with no engineering background have replaced trained technicians, suggesting that production is crippled. In those that remain operational, production of bombs for jet airstrikes has been ordered doubled. (3/18)
Hundreds of junta troops and police who surrendered or fled battles in northern Shan State and Arakan State have been imprisoned by the junta for cowardice. That includes those who fled into India and Bangladesh and were returned. (Khit Thit Media 3/21)
The junta shuffled generals again, on the premise that its systematic losses are a symptom of bad leadership. The generals in charge of Arakan, Kawthoolei Beit-Tavoy District, and the central region were replaced and sent to the “reserves”, of which there haven’t been any for over a year. (Khit Thit Media 3/23)
Terrorism--------------------
Jets bombed a Muslim village in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State on March 18, killing 23 civilians including young children, old people, men and women. Eighteen others were seriously injured. Pauktaw was liberated by the Arakan Army during February, but this village had nothing to do with the fighting, it was purely a terrorist attack. (Khit Thit Media 3/18)
Jets also bombed and destroyed a public hospital in a liberated area of Pekhon Township in Karenniland on March 21. Nobody was killed due to air raid measures taken by hospital staff, but the building and an ambulance were destroyed, depriving the population of medical services. (Myanmar Now 3/22)
While the junta has now lost control of dozens of towns, it has targeted a few of them for strenuous efforts at recapture and destruction, as if to punish resistance forces for seeking freedom from military rule. Among those towns are Mese in Karenni State, Kawlin in Sagaing Region, and Sisaing in southern Shan State.
Kawlin was liberated by PDF forces from November 2023 until February 2024. The PDFs and the National Unity Government set up civilian governance there and residents returned to normal life. This was intolerable to the junta, which gradually battered those PDFs until it was able to drive them out and retake the town. In the month since, it has completely burned and destroyed the town, and stocked it with reinforcements and artillery, seemingly determined that liberation forces not return, and even if they do, that there be nothing to liberate. The junta has even destroyed all the surrounding villages. The PDFs can only fight the troops when they come out to destroy further villages.
The junta was never able to retake Mese in southern Karenni State, and had to abandon the effort when Karenni forces turned the state capital Loikaw into the main battleground. Instead, the Karenni have liberated other towns.
Now in Sisaing, which is held by ethnic Pa-O forces, the junta is making an effort similar to Kawlin, relentlessly bombing and attacking the town in a drive to retake and/or destroy it. Thus far the Pa-O have held out, and have inflicted heavy casualties on the attacking forces. The Pa-O are a small army, however, and the non-stop airstrikes and repeated ground assaults are taking their toll. The town is heavily damaged. If the Pa-O can get help, they may stave off the onslaught long enough for the tide of the war to end the danger. If not, Sisaing may go the way of Kawlin, to be lost for a time until the junta becomes too weak to hold it, at which point there will be nothing left but ruins.
Most of the liberated towns are not in danger of being lost, however, as the junta has only enough manpower to focus on a few.
Political and economic-------------------
Thailand will begin providing humanitarian aid on March 25 – to the illegal junta of Myanmar, rather than refugees. Food and medicines will be shipped through the Myawaddy border gate, which at this moment is still under junta control. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/18) The junta is famous for diverting humanitarian aid to its own purposes, of which the Thai government is well aware, and even if the junta wanted to supply internal refugees, it doesn’t control the territory where refugees settle who are fleeing its violence. Thus, the Thailand military regime gains a publicity photo-op while continuing to prop up what’s left of the Naypyitaw junta. The potential silver lining is that the Karen army controls all roads leading out of Myawaddy, so it could possibly take control of the materials sent and make sure they go where they’re needed.
UN Secretary General Atonio Guterres is “extremely concerned” about the bombing of civilians and forced military recruitment in Burma, to the point where he was moved to issue a Strongly Worded Statement on March 18. He condemned “all forms of violence,” not daring to name the junta. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/19) He urged special protection for humanitarian workers, such as UN staff. These are the ones delivering food and medicines to junta-controlled areas where the regime can take advantage of them, while avoiding contact with the National Unity Government and ethnic homeland governments that govern the areas where conflict-affected populations live.
-စီၤ ထံဆၢ
We are concerned about an orphanage in Kachin State and praying for their safety.
Horrific and hard to read. Thanks for getting the word out on a situation that is being ignored by most of the world.