Burma coup resistance notes October 4, 2022
Karen forces inflict heavy casualties in Palaw; junta troops attack civilian villages and refugee camp; coordinated People's Defense Forces increasingly deploy large contingents into battle.
Ethnic regions-------------------
In a large battle yesterday in Palaw township of Kawthoolei Beit-Tavoy District (Tanintharyi Region on Burmese maps), Karen army and PDF forces bombed a junta convoy on its way from Palaw toward Myeik. Junta reinforcements then came to the aid of the stricken convoy, and they too were targeted. The joint Karen forces fired all afternoon, and at the end, at least 20 junta troops were killed and 10 wounded; the troops also killed 3 of their civilian human shields. The Karen captured a number of weapons from the enemy dead.
In Kawthoolei Dooplaya District (Myawaddy township on Burmese maps), Karen Cobra battalion snipers picked off 3 junta troops yesterday. In Kyainseikgyi township a drone-bombing PDF allied to the Karen army bombed a police checkpoint at a bridge, killing 2 troops and wounding a junta officer (corporal) and 2 other troops. About 70 junta troops have moved back into the ruins of their lost camp at Jayt in Kaw T’Ree township (Kawkareik on Burmese maps). Karen forces captured the camp on Sept. 20, capturing 2 junta soldiers and killing 7 and confiscating weapons. The Karen forces then burned the camp and left. The new junta troops looted villages and mugged civilians on their way in, firing mortars and guns and destroying a clinic and some houses. (Kawkareik Open News)
In Arakan State, junta troops invaded a refugee camp at Yan Aung in Buthidaung township and forced the refugees out at gunpoint, ordering them back to their villages, which are in a battle zone. Some of the villages no longer exist due to junta burning. Troops have cut off transport routes, preventing the refugees from getting food, while military families buy up most of the food. (People's Spring)
In Mon State, a local PDF in Ye township exchanged fire with junta troops yesterday at Kawzah for 25 minutes; 3 junta troops including an officer and 2 PDF fighters were killed. (Khit Thit Media)
Junta army internal divisions------------------
Troops are disgruntled because their officers are pocketing all the profits from illegal gambling dens and timber extraction, as well as cash extorted from local businesses and the ransoms from civilian hostages taken, and not sharing the money with the soldiers. Instead, local commanders pass on payments to their superiors only. This is reported from Ma U Pin township in Irrawaddy Region. The soldiers regard this as unfair corruption, and it is leading to tension within the battalions. (Ayeyarwaddy Times)
Junta scorched earth village terrorism campaign---------------
Troops burned Zawchaung village of Kantbalu township, Sagaing Region today, beating residents and taking hostages. Seven thousand five hundred residents of this and 3 nearby villages are now refugees. Troops are firing mortars into Aleykon, Thindaw, and Lwingyi villages.
In Monywa township, troops destroyed Monywa Jemon village yesterday, kidnapping a large number of hostages, including whole families, who were sheltering in a Buddhist monastery. This happened after a PDF bombed a convoy on a nearby road; it is longstanding Burma army policy to retaliate against civilians. (Khit Thit Media)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
In Sagaing Region, 200 fighters from four PDFs from Salingyi, Palay, Yesagyo, and Myaing townships attacked a junta police barracks at Kyadet in Salingyi township on Oct. 2, capturing 3 out of 5 bunkers on the site before being driven off by two helicopters that arrived to relieve the failing outpost. The helicopters also turned their guns on the civilian village, forcing residents to flee. Of the 60 troops and police stationed there, at least 5 were killed, but the casualty total isn’t known. Two PDF fighters were also killed and several wounded. Normally the police there are supposed to patrol the township, but have been confined to their bunkers by the PDFs. (The Irrawaddy)
Yesterday PDFs along the banks of the Chindwin River in Kani township fired on junta supply boats, killing 14 troops and wounding 5 on board. Videos show a boat billowing smoke after being hit. Today 14 junta military boats are patrolling the river and firing into the riverside villages, causing 20,000 people to flee. Land-based troops invaded North and East Aintaung villages. (Than Lwin Khet News)
In Khin Oo township, PDFs monitoring junta troops building a concrete defense bunker at a road and railway bridge dropped fragmentation bombs from drones, killing 8 of the troops.
In Salingyi township yesterday a PDF killed 4 junta police as they were shopping in Nyaungpingyi village; troops then arrived and started shooting into 11 area villages, forcing residents of all of them to grab a few belongings and run. (Mizzima)
In Mandalay Region, after a PDF in Kyaukse township ambushed a junta electric company official and 3 armed police escorts on their way to deposit cash receipts at a bank yesterday, two police in plain clothes in Sankai township then pretended to also deposit electric company receipts at a bank in order to attract PDFs so they could be caught. The trap backfired, however, when the PDFs shot and killed the police major and deputy chief and then left. (Khit Thit Media)
Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)-------------------
Two junta soldiers who worked at a weapons factory in Magway Region were declared dead by the junta after they disappeared in November. In fact they were captured alive by a PDF. They are publicly advising all other junta troops to leave the military and join the CDM, and say they are kept much better as prisoners of war than they were as soldiers for the junta. (Khit Thit Media)
The junta has detained many of its own staff after the leak of the Sept. 26 memo forbidding the inclusion of military casualty figures in internal reports due to consistent leaks of that information to the press and public. Employees dealing with reporting and data have been locked up and their mobile phones seized as the junta tries to identify who leaked the memo. The news of this internal purge was also leaked to the press by internal sources, so the leaks continue. (Khit Thit Media)
The National Unity Government raised $9 million by selling plots of land that were illegally seized by the military some years ago. The land is in Patheingyi township of Mandalay, and the $9 million is from 40% down payments on the land, put up for sale at $24 million total price, which is still below the market price. This follows a similar land sale from a military base in Yangon, and the auction of dictator Min Aung Hlaing’s Yangon house which raised $10 million. (The Irrawaddy)
ASEAN has not invited the Burma dictator to its 41st summit meetings in Cambodia in November, even though the host, Cambodia, has a similar military regime that is friendly toward Burma’s illegal military junta. The non-invitation is due to pressure from the democratically-governed ASEAN members, especially Malaysia, after the Burma regime rejected ASEAN’s very watered-down conditions for reducing mass violence. ASEAN will accept only a “non-political representative” from Burma, meaning that it is still not ready to validate the National Unity Government made up of duly elected politicians. (Mizzima)
- စီၤ ထံဆၢ