More than 80 officers and other ranks have left the Air Force since Myanmar’s military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup.
Captain Lin Htet Aung from Defence Services Academy Intake 54 confirmed reports on social media that over 80 officers and other ranks have left the Air Force. Hundreds of soldiers from infantry units have also joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM), he said.
“More than 10 officers from the Air Force have joined the CDM. The highest ranking of them are captains,” said Captain Lin Htet Aung who is also on strike.
The officers and other ranks who have left come from air bases and aviation communication units in Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyarwady regions and Kachin State.
More than 80 officers and other ranks have left the Air Force since Myanmar’s military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup.
Captain Lin Htet Aung from Defence Services Academy Intake 54 confirmed reports on social media that over 80 officers and other ranks have left the Air Force. Hundreds of soldiers from infantry units have also joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM), he said.
“More than 10 officers from the Air Force have joined the CDM. The highest ranking of them are captains,” said Captain Lin Htet Aung who is also on strike.
The officers and other ranks who have left come from air bases and aviation communication units in Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyarwady regions and Kachin State.
“Some have fled because they have committed offences. Others have joined the CDM of their own volition,” Captain Lin Htet Aung said.
Their departure could have a negative impact on the administrative functions of the air force, said the captain. The reports of airmen leaving the Air Force come after a military gunship was shot down by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Momauk, Kachin State on Monday. The three airmen on board died in the crash.
Military analysts suggested that the incident will deter regime jet fighters from launching attacks from the same altitude that the gunship was flying at when it was shot down. The regime’s jets will have to fly at a higher altitude, which makes it more difficult for them to hit targets on the ground.
“The junta has to carry out airstrikes because it can’t beat the KIA in ground warfare. So if the helicopter was shot down while flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the jets will have to fly at a higher altitude when launching attacks. That will reduce the precision of their bombing,” said one analyst.
The analysts suggested also that the morale of Myanmar’s military seems to be declining, as their soldiers were easily defeated when the KIA and the Karen National Liberation Army attacked military outposts in Kachin and Karen states in the past few weeks.
The National Unity Government, a shadow government formed to rival the military regime, announced on Wednesday that it has established the People’s Defence Force, a move signaling its desire to step up armed resistance against the junta which has killed some 760 civilians since the coup.
Since Myanmar’s military staged a coup on Feb. 1, no country seems more concerned than China over the unfolding chaos in the Southeast Asian nation. Given its investments in major infrastructure and other projects in the country, as well as its roughly US$16-million per day border trade with Myanmar, Beijing has good reason to be worried. Among its many investments in its southern neighbor, the 800-kilometer-long oil and natural gas twin pipelines that run from Myanmar’s western region to China are seen as having strategic importance. The crude oil pipeline transports 22 million tons annually, while the natural gas pipeline carries 12 billion cubic meters of gas.
The importance of the project was highlighted in February when Chinese officials held an emergency meeting with Myanmar officials, at which they urged the military regime to tighten security measures for the pipelines. They said the project is a crucial part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Myanmar and insisted that “any damage to the pipelines would cause huge losses for both countries.” The request came amid growing anti-China sentiment in Myanmar, where protesters—angered by Beijing’s blocking of the UN Security Council (UNSC)’s efforts to take action against the coup leaders—have threatened to blow up the pipelines.
Now, following Wednesday’s deadly attack on a group of security personnel who were standing guard at the pipelines’ off-take station in Mandalay, China’s concerns will only have intensified. Military-owned Myawaddy TV hastily reported on the incident on the same day that three guards at the “oil and natural gas station”—as they put it—in Singtaing Township were slashed to death by unidentified attackers. Everyone in the neighborhood knows that “the station” refers to the Chinese-owned pipeline station. The sword and machete attack on the policemen was undoubtedly part of Myanmar’s growing popular armed resistance against the regime.
Despite the deaths of the guards, the twin pipelines are so far relatively safe. Down in Yangon, in March, 32 China-backed factories in the Hlaingtharyar Industrial Zone were torched amid the regime’s deadly crackdowns on protesters. China accused protesters of setting the factories alight, but protesters denied the allegations, saying the attacks were a plot by the military to justify harsher crackdowns.
It’s true that Myanmar has never seen such large-scale arson attacks against Chinese properties before. With the killings of the guards at the substation, Beijing should be worried about the safety of the pipelines, as anti-regime activism and anti-China sentiment are now running high.
Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who has covered Myanmar and Asia for several decades, said it is understandable that many people in Myanmar are upset with the Chinese authorities, given their efforts over many decades to block any move by the UNSC to condemn atrocities committed by military governments in Myanmar or to introduce arms embargos against them. It would come as no surprise if attacks were carried out against, for instance, the pipelines, he said. “And attitudes will not change unless the Chinese government stops its support for the Myanmar military. That should be a real concern.”
Resistance fighters in Chin State say they seized and burned down a police outpost in Surkhua, a town some 80km south of the capital Hakha, on Saturday morning.
The Chinland Defence Force (CDF), a group formed to protect civilians attacked by the military, said it took control of the outpost without a fight.
There were four soldiers and 11 policemen stationed at the outpost when the CDF arrived, but none of them resisted, a spokesperson for the group told Myanmar Now.
“When we got there, they all fled. We didn’t have to fire a shot. The outposts here don’t have a lot of manpower, and they already knew about us,” said the spokesperson, who asked not to be named.
The CDF, whose members are mostly ethnic Chin people from nine townships in Chin State as well as areas outside the state, was formed in April amid crackdowns on anti-coup protesters.
The group said it seized the outpost because the majority of policemen and soldiers there did not join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule, despite demands from local residents for them to defect.
According to the spokesperson, only two policemen at the outpost had joined the CDM, while the 15 who were still there until Saturday had remained loyal to the junta.
After seizing some ammunition left behind by the fleeing regime forces, the CDF burned down the outpost to prevent them from returning and as a “warning” to the regime.
“This is a warning that we can seize any of their outposts. If they don’t agree with our demands, we will take further action,” said the spokesperson.
The group claimed earlier this week that it had killed at least nine soldiers during three consecutive days of attacks aimed at forcing the regime to release 60 civilians in custody for protesting against the February 1 coup.
Late last month the CDF said it killed about 30 Myanmar military soldiers during four days of fighting in Mindat.
News (4)
Rakhine nationalist group joins KNU in fight against Junta military
Source : Myanmar Now
The Arakan National Council (ANC), a Rakhine armed group based in Kayin State, has started fighting alongside the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) against the Myanmar military, its leader said on Friday.
ANC commander-in-chief Colonel Min Tun announced the move following the seizure of another Tatmadaw base in Kayin State’s Hpapun (Mutraw) District earlier in the day.
Colonel Min Tun told Myanmar Now that the Oo Thu Hta base fell easily to a combined force of KNLA and ANC troops on Friday morning. A large stash of artillery weapons was also seized in the attack, he added.
“The enemy retreated because they lacked manpower. It wasn’t a difficult battle where we had to struggle to seize it. Since they were short-handed, they went for aid from the Thai authorities and joined another base,” he said.
The ANC, which has an estimated strength of around 100 troops, was part of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an umbrella group of ethnic armies.
The ANC is one of three Rakhine nationalist groups operating armies in the country. The other two are the Arakan Liberation Party, which is a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), and the United League of Arakan (ULA).
The ANC had been in talks with the government to sign the NCA, but negotiations ended in 2018.
Of the three groups, the ULA, which was founded near the Chinese border, is militarily the most powerful. Its armed wing, the Arakan Army (AA), saw intense clashes with the military in Rakhine and southern Chin State before last year’s election.
“There have been frontline battles, but mainly we’re responsible for providing aid for the IDPs in those areas,” Colonel Min Tun said of the ANC’s involvement in those clashes.
A KNLA official confirmed that the Oo Thu Hta base was set on fire and destroyed after weapons found there were confiscated by its troops.
The KNLA’s Brigade 5 also seized the military’s Thee Mu Hta base in Hpapun District on March 27 and the Thaw Le Hta outpost on the Thai-Myanmar border on April 27.
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