Humiliating defeat for Myanmar’s junta as rebellion snowballs

HUNDREDS of soldiers have reportedly been forced to surrender in a humiliating defeat for Myanmar’s embattled junta, as rebels close in on a key border town on the Thai border.

Guerrilla fighters from the Karen National Liberation Army, which has waged an insurgency for decades in eastern Karen state, have claimed that they are on the brink of seizing Myawaddy, which is a town hosting several strategic army posts and which sits on a major trade route with Thailand.

The fall of Myawaddy would be the latest in the series of shocking blows for Myanmar’s military regime since an insurgent uprising of three armed ethnic groups began in the northern Shan State in October and snowballed across the country.

The offensive, Operation 1027, has presented the biggest challenge to the junta since it seized power in a 2021 coup.

Unprecedented coordination between rebel groups has left the military overstretched on multiple battlefronts and it has been forced to concede several border crossings with India and China.

A spokesman for the Karen National Union, a group which claims to represent the Karen ethnic minority in Myanmar, said that the KNLA, the group’s armed wing, had besieged military outposts on the outskirts of Myawaddy over the weekend.

This included a base that had served for almost six decades as the Myanmar military’s regional headquarters, the spokesman said.

News of the significant setback for the military regime appeared to be supported on Sunday by the evacuation of civil servants, officials and civilians to the Thai town of Mae Sot, which is nearby.

Media outlets in Thailand reported that a state-owned Myanmar National Airlines plane made an unscheduled flight into the town from Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, to rescue people fleeing Myawaddy.

Bangkok’s decision to cooperate with Myanmar’s regime created controversy in Thailand, with Rangsiman Rome, a leading Thai opposition politician, denouncing the move as “very unwise” on Twitter.

“What does Thailand gain from helping the Myanmar military government at this time?” he said.

However, many of Karen’s population have no choice but to stay behind and face the beleaguered military’s continued onslaught.

Srettha Thavisin, the Thai prime minister, told Reuters that although the military junta was weakening, “they have the power, they have the weapons”.

The potential capture of the town of Myawaddy follows weeks of fighting and a sustained aerial bombing campaign against civilians, which has forced nearly 700,000 to flee their homes.

The Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian group operating in Karen state, reported another massacre on Easter Day after military jets bombed a monastery which had been sheltering about 200 people.

Eight people were killed, including the senior monk who was torn in half, said the group.

Dave Eubank, the leader of the ranger group, said: “One of the mothers, whose 17-year-old daughter was killed, cried in my arms.

“The mother’s cry pierced our hearts as she spoke of her lost child. [She said:] ‘She was a special young girl for the world ... My husband was just shot and killed last week by a sniper. Now my daughter is dead. What can I do?’”