Casualties rise in Myanmar as junta uses scorched earth tactics against insurgents
Military forces now control less than half the country but are holding on tenaciously to much of central Myanmar; one million people have been forced to ee their homes since October, says U.N. agency; 4,962 civilians killed since the military took power t
ix months into an offensive against Myanmar’s military government, Opposition forces have made massive gains, but civilian casualties are rising sharply as regime troops increasingly turn toward scorchedearth tactics in the Southeast Asian country’s bitter civil war.
There is pressure on all fronts from powerful militias drawn from Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups and newer resistance forces. Troops are retaliating with air, naval, and artillery strikes on hospitals and other facilities where the Opposition could be sheltered or aided.
“When the mass of people rise up against them, I think it terri es them,” said Dave Eubank, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier who founded the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian aid organisation that has provided assistance to both combatants and civilians in Myanmar since the 1990s.
“They know that hospitals, churches, schools, and monasteries are important places for human care, and gathering, and symbols — and they hammer them,” said Eubank.
Military forces now control
Sless than half the country but are holding on tenaciously to much of central Myanmar including the capital, Naypyidaw and largest city, Yangon, and is far better armed than the resistance forces, with support from Russia and China.
“People have been saying that the regime was on the brink of collapse since two weeks after the coup,” in February 2021, said Morgan Michaels, an analyst with the International Institute of Strategic Studies who runs its Myanmar Conict Map project. “On the other hand, obviously the regime is weaker than it’s ever been .... so there’s no doubt that it’s in serious, serious trouble,” he said.
Thet Swe, a spokesman for the military government, denied that troops were targeting areas where civilians were sheltering, blaming their destruction instead on the Opposition forces, without citing evidence.
As the ghting has moved into more populated areas, about one million people have been forced to ee their homes since the start of the oensive in October, contributing to the more than three million internally displaced people in the country of some 56 million, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian aid agency.
With the collapse of its health care system and food supplies dwindling, 18.6 million people are in need, the agency said.
Opposition in Myanmar, also known as Burma, had been growing since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, but it gained new momentum in October when major militias known collectively as the Three Brotherhood Alliance launched a joint oensive.
Together, the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army — among the most powerful militias formed by Myanmar’s ethnic minorities — made quick advances.
As they captured huge swaths of territory largely in the north and northeast, including economically important border crossings with China and several major military bases, other ethnic armed groups sensed momentum and joined the ghting.
At the same time, People’s Defence Forces — armed resistance groups that support the shadow National Unity Government, which views itself as Myanmar’s legitimate administration — have been increasing in number and launching their own attacks, often supported and trained by the ethnic armed militias.
Both sides claim they have inicted heavy tolls. And the military government under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has acknowledged it is under pressure, recently reintroducing conscription to increase its ranks.
With the violence across its border, China helped broker a cease- re in Myanmar’s north in January with the Three Brotherhood Alliance. But the alliance’s Arakan Army continues to ght in its home Rakhine state in the west and has made signi cant gains, while PDFs and other ethnic armed groups continue their own attacks elsewhere.
The ercest ghting in recent weeks has been in the southeast, where the main ethnic Karen ghting force, the Karen National Liberation Army, claimed in early April to have seized all the military bases in Myawaddy, the main town on the border with Thailand in Kayin state, also known as Karen state.
Thousands of civilians have ed Myawaddy and Kawkareik. But many civilians haven’t managed to escape.
At least 1,015 civilian deaths have been documented from November 1 through May 1, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group that tracks political arrests, attacks and casualties. It says 4,962 civilians have been killed overall since the military took power three years ago.
The watchdog blamed the deaths on the military’s increasing use of scorchedearth tactics and ghting moving into more populated areas.
An Opposition politician still inside the country, speaking on condition of anonymity for his own safety, said Myanmar’s people have a common desire for peace and stability, but the various factions still pursue their own interests.