Burma coup resistance notes March 16, 2024
Karen army closes in on Myawaddy border town; Kachin overrun many junta bases; junta slaughters civilians and torches communities; PDF rockets damage aircraft on the ground.
Kachin-------------------
About 80 junta troops and officers surrendered at Dawponyang on March 8. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/9) The Kachin say they seized almost 20 junta camps since the star of their broad-front offensive that is being called “Operation 03/07”, in Waingmaw, Momauk, and Hpakant Townships and along the Sagaing border. (People's Spring, Chindwin News Agency 3/10) The junta footprint in Kachin State is shrinking fast.
On March 9 the Kachin and allied PDFs captured two more camps near the free Kachin capital Laiza. The same day, the Tamakan junta battalion camp fell in Hpakant Township after a 2-week siege, resulting in weapons captured by the Kachin. The 70 junta troops remaining in the base negotiated to leave without their weapons, after 70 were killed and 20 were captured in battle. (Kachin News Group 3/11) They didn’t surrender, however, and they still had weapons, so the Kachin attacked them twice the next day, capturing many of those weapons. In Sumparabum Township 13 police defected to the Kachin side. (Kachin News Group 3/11) The Kachin army also occupied the police barracks in Tamakan on March 9.
On March 11 the Kachin took another camp in Hpakant Township, at Kathine Daung. A colonel was among the dead, the nephew of the junta’s propaganda mouthpiece, Gen. Zaw Min Tun. The Kachin then ambushed the troops fleeing the lost camp and captured a large number of their weapons. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/12) The Kachin shot and damaged an attack helicopter on March 11, forcing it to make an emergency landing at the Myitkyina airbase. (The Irrawaddy E 3/12)
The Kachin seized a strategic junta base at Da Sai in Momauk Township on March 14, where there were over 40 junta dead and some captured alive along with 200 weapons taken. (The 74 Media 3/15) The following day the Kachin overwhelmed another junta camp close to Laiza at Bumyaidaung. (People's Spring 3/16)
Kachin army video of its attack that seized Da Sai junta base in Momauk Township. (People's Spring 3/15)
The Kachin army now controls all 3 roads leading into Hpakant town, which is the hub of the jade mining industry. (Khit Thit Media 3/9) It also occupies the roads from the state capital Myitkyina to Banmaw and Puta-O, leaving the junta only air transport for resuuply. On March 11 the Kachin struck only 20 km from Myitkyina, attacking 100 junta troops camped in a village on the Mogaung highway. (The 74 Media) The Kachin army is rapidly moving the front line from its free capital Laiza toward the junta-occupied state capital. The junta has evacuated family members from Kachin State.
Now the Kachin army is attacking a junta base at Sumperabum and jets are conducting airstrikes.
In addition to its broad front offensive in Kachin State, the Kachin army is attacking junta positions in Momeik and Mabeim Townships in northern Shan State and Htee Chaing in northern Sagaing Region, along with the allied ABSDF militia. (The Irrawaddy B 3/11
)Kawthoolei-------------------
The Karen army and its Cobra Column continued their attack that began on March 7, seizing the police barracks at Thinganyinaung on March 9 and killing 19 troops. Between that and the battalion camp taken the previous day, the Karen captured more than 140 rifles, 6 army trucks, mortars, and ammunition. Two other battalion camps remain under attack. The wife of a camp commander was killed, and 6 Karen army soldiers have died so far. The junta is countering with continuous airstrikes in various sites in the area. Thousands of civilians are crowding into monasteries and Myawaddy town for shelter from the fighting and junta airstrikes. (Karen Information Center 3/8, People's Spring 3/9) Thinganyinaung is only 10 km from the Thailand border crossing and even closer to Myawaddy city, the main crossing between Burma and Thailand.
The junta has been airlifting troops from its 22nd Division into the Myawaddy border city to prevent its fall, since the land routes are cut off. These troops had been deployed in Arakan State, so their shift to Myawaddy weakens its defense against the steady advance of the Arakan Army.
Nearby, the Karen seized a junta border camp at Palu, 20 km south of Myawaddy, on March 11. Two Burmese soldiers were captured and 10 fled to Thailand and were detained there, while the Karen Venom (Cobra 2) battalion captured the camp’s weapons. (Karen Information Center, People's Spring 3/11)
Also in Dooplaya District, the Karen army overcame the junta base at Kyaikdon in Kaw T’Ree Township on March 14, after a month-and-a-half-long siege. Sixty-six junta troops surrendered including the commander. The base had been completely surrounded and unable to resupply. Several dozen junta troops were captured. (Mizzima, Karen Information Center 3/15) This base lies along a key road leading from Kaw T’Ree and Notakaw towns toward the Thailand border at Per Kler. Its fall leaves all camps along that stretch of the border unsupported.
In southern Kawthoolei, a nearly hour-long battletook place March 10 in Myitta, Tavoy Township, in which 10 junta troops and 3 Karen soldiers were killed. The Karen forces included those of Brigades 4 and 6 as well as PDFs. Jets then bombed the town. (Tanintharyi Times 3/11)
Further south still in the Mergui archipelago off the coast of Beit (Myeik), a low-intensity running battle has been ongoing for weeks as local PDFs attack junta forces on Junsu Island. On March 11 the PDFs assaulted a junta/Pyu Saw Htee camp and killed 10 or more troops and wounded others. (Khit Thit Media 3/12)
Arakan-----------------
The Arakan Army seized a junta border post in Maungdaw Township on March 12, finding dead troops and weapons as well as food and water that the junta had poisoned. (Khit Thit Media 3/13)
The AA killed junta troops who fled from the defeated training camp in Minbya Township on Feb. 27. The junta troops had taken civilian hostages as human shields. One of the junta dead was the commander, a colonel. (The Irrawaddy E 3/11)
177 junta border police from 2 camps fled to Bangladesh on March 11 due to AA attacks in Maungdaw Township. A mortar shell fired by the junta fell inside Bangladesh and killed a middle-aged man. (Khit Thit Media 3/12)
The AA says it is now working to clear out the last remaining junta camps from the northwest corner of Arakan, which would leave at least half of the state liberated. (Khit Thit Media 3/16)
Karenni-----------------
Karenni defense forces captured a key bridge over the Salween River in Hpasaung town on March 9, seizing drone jammers and a number of weapons that suggested over a dozen junta troops killed or captured. (People's Spring 3/11, Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/12)
Five junta police defected to the Karenni defense forces with full weapons this week, 4 from Hpasaung and 1 from Bawlakhe. (People's Spring 3/12)
Mon-----------------
The recently-split anti-dictatorship faction of the New Mon State Party, NMSP-AD, carried out an attack on a junta convoy in Mudon Township on March 14, capturing 2 vehicles, weapons, phones, and other material when the troops fled. They burned the vehicles. (Khit Thit Media 3/15) The old guard of the NMSP still clings to the junta.
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
A PDF fired five 107mm shock missiles at the junta’s Taungoo air base the night of March 14. Two missiles were defective, but damaged 2 aircraft, another fell near a fuel depot, and the third fell near a weapons installation. (Khit Thit Media 3/15)
PDFs in Bago Region’s Minhla Township attacked junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee terrorists in the Yoma mountain range for 4 days, March 7-10, killing or wounding 83 of them. (People's Spring 3/11)
In Thabeitjin Township of far northern Mandalay Region, PDFs attacked junta positions for 3 days March 5-7, killing 14 and capturing 4 alive, and seizing all 18 of their weapons. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/12) This is adjacent to the areas liberated by the Ta’ang and Kachin armies in northern Shan State.
Junta decline------------------
Junta soldiers who fled the army give the following reasons: Battlefield losses shatter army unity; lack of reinforcements; being sent to the front lines without training; lack of food and having to buy food locally; poor equipment; inadequate weapons; contact with family not allowed; brutality and mistreatment by officers. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/13) Troops going into towns in small groups to buy food, wearing civilian clothes, are routinely shot or arrested by PDFs and ethnic forces.
The junta is making another pass of involuntary recall to aging military veterans to return to service. Most of those physically able were already conscripted over a year ago. Young people are still being rounded up and offered a choice between conscription or paying large bribes. (The Irrawaddy E 3/15)
In the mean time the junta has kidnapped at least 500 Muslim Rohingya men from the concentration camps where it confines them, and forced them into a 10-day “military training” in which they were not given any live ammunition. From there they were sent to the front lines, and at least 100 of them have already been killed in action. The racist regime does not even recognize the citizenship of these Rohingya men it is using as unskilled cannon fodder. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/11, Myanmar Now 3/12, Western News 3/14)
To augment its dwindling ranks, the junta is using Pyu Saw Htee civilian militia and villagers on the front lines. In the battle in Tamakan in Kachin State described above, Pyu Saw Htee who were killed and wounded were abandoned by fleeing junta troops, where they were found by the victorious Kachin soldiers. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/12)
In Yangon and Naypyitaw the regime is collecting lists of draft-eligible men by ward, focusing on men age 30-35. Those identified are not allowed to travel. (People's Spring 3/14) Junta supporters previously registered their availability for military service in Nyaungtun, Irrawaddy Region, but when officials came to enlist them, they went into hiding. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/14)
Since the Arakan Army sank 4 navy ships and damaged others, the junta is commandeering private boats, ordering them to stop their business and instead deliver military supplies from Yangon to the shrinking junta forces in Arakan State. (Khit Thit Media 3/11)
Two officers and a soldier have fled the junta base in Mindat, Chin State so far in March. The soldier was recaptured, tied, beaten, and taken back to an uncertain fate. The others reached safety. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 3/11)
Terrorism--------------------
Junta troops burned the entire village of Thakkei outside of Monywa in Sagaing Region on March 14, torching 500 homes, with people still inside. At least 4 charred corpses were found afterward. (The Irrawaddy E 3/15)
As with other liberated towns, the junta has been systematically destroying Sisaing town in southern Shan State, which is held by the Pa-O ethnic army (PNLA). Jet airstrikes and mortar barrages have demolished many buildings, killed at least 49 civilians, and forced the entire population to flee as refugees. The junta has been expending maximum effort to subdue Sisaing. (Khit Thit Media 3/13) In nearby Hopone Township, junta troops completely burned down Nam Hu village.
Junta mortar fire directed at civilians killed 12 people including 3 young children and 3 teenage girls in villages around Banmaw city in Kachin State on March 12. (The 74 Media 3/13) Similarly, shelling in Minbya Township in Arakan State has killed over 30 civilians so far after the junta lost control there to the Arakan Army. (Khit Thit Media 3/13) A terrorist airstrike on a CDM school during a staff meeting killed a teacher and wounded 4 others in Pakokku Township of Magway Region on March 13. (Khit Thit Media 3/14)
The junta has begun stealing the houses of people who fled to avoid the new conscription law in Daik Oo Township of Bago Region. If troops can’t find the young people it wants, they seize the houses and everything in them. Families without draft-eligible young people are being extorted 200,000 kyats. Troops threaten to burn the homes of those who don’t comply. (Mekong News, Karen Information Center 3/10)
Junta jets bombed an International Women’s Day celebration event in Mindat, Chin State, wounding an 8-year-old girl. (Mizzima 3/10)
Political and economic-------------------
The Kokang government has reopened two China border gates at Shwe Li and Chinshwehaw, for the first time since Operation 10/27. (Mekong News)
It was revealed that an Indian parliamentary delegation visited Arakan Army-controlled territory in western Burma (Chin or Arakan State) at the end of February. (The Irrawaddy B 3/15) India backed the illegal Naypyitaw regime for nearly 3 years after the attempted coup, but as the Arakan Army has become the dominant power near India’s border, India now seems to be recognizing that its interests lie in collaboration with the new Arakan administration.
-စီၤ ထံဆၢ
Just came across your substack from the Insight Myanmar podcast and what a wealth of information! Looking forward to learning more as we delve into environmental issues in the mountain areas of Myanmar ourselves!