1st April 2021
Underneath is the reason why it is so difficult to get information from Myanmar. Mobile networks have been offline since 15th March and network connectivity is sporadic to say the least.
Meanwhile resistance continues to grow and the EAOs are becoming more active.
Below is a clip of the Arakan army training. It was made before the ceasefire of a few years ago, but they have now stated that they are opposed to the coup and are ready to commence action. What the clip does show is that they aren’t a makeshift group cobbled together, they are a serious army. They are in close contact with other EAOs, and they are all warning the Military of the consequences if the slaughter of civilians doesn’t stop.
There are reports of workers and students from the main centres going into the jungle and undertaking guerrilla training with EAOs. This is indicating that the desire to rid the country of the generals is growing stronger by the day. It is a tragedy that a country which 3 years ago had GDP growth of 7% and a burgeoning middle class has lost all that because of the gross stupidity of one man who was overpromoted ahead of more pragmatic generals.
The country is slipping into civil war because the Tatmadaw underestimated the resistance to their coup. If that happens it will probably drag on for years unless a diplomatic solution can be found, if not then Myanmar will become a failed state, with a border with China. That has huge implications for the west as China will be tempted to assert influence to the detriment of other states in the region. They will look for assistance from the west and Biden’s reaction, in particular, will decide who will control the China seas and then the western Pacific.
At least six civilians, including some who had been wounded, were arrested by the military regime’s forces during the clashes with villagers in Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region on Friday.
The clashes started about 4 a.m. Friday near the Thapyayaye village in the township after villagers had conducted a defensive action against nearly 100 military troops approaching the village for a raid.
Local residents claimed that the military regime’s forces attempted to attack the village because some of villagers and village’s monk have been leading anti-regime protests in the township.
In the morning, the military’s forces in the battle were reinforced with about 100 more troops. Meanwhile, hundreds of villagers from more than three dozen other villages from Yinmabin Township and Kani Township arrived to help the civilian forces fighting against the junta’s gunmen.
In the defensive action, villagers used homemade percussion lock firearms and homemade gas pressure guns firing glass or steel balls. They faced military troops using live rounds of ammunition.
“We must fight back against them, if not, our generation will face a worse situation than us. They have no laws,” a neighborhood villager who battled the regime’s forces for Thapyayaye village, told The Irrawaddy.
Local villagers said that in the afternoon, the military troops retreated into the forests after facing the combined offensive by several villages.
“We don’t know exactly how to decide to go forward. We have never seen such kinds of clashes between the military’s troops and villagers before,” a resident of Thapyayaye village told The Irrawaddy on Friday.
According to that resident, many older people and children have fled their homes in the village in fear of the military troops.
“We have no proper weapons, but despite that we want to resist the military regime. I would like to request ethnic armed forces to help us,” a resident of Yinmabin Township, who is one of those organizing anti-regime demonstrations in the township, told The Irrawaddy.
After the military regime used live rounds, hand grenades and explosives while conducting weeks of deadly crackdowns on peaceful anti-regime demonstrations, protesters across Myanmar are responding with defensive actions by using traditional homemade firearms, homemade gas pressure guns, handmade bows and arrows and Molotov cocktails.
Villagers have also conducted an offensive against the military junta’s forces going to Kale town in Sagaing Region for four days beginning Monday. Reinforcement troops sent to help regime forces attacking the town were met by the villagers using traditional homemade percussion lock firearms at a site 15 miles away from the town.
During clashes between March 30 and April 1, about five villagers were killed by the junta’s forces. Another villager was killed by security forces while he was at his home, local residents told The Irrawaddy.
Also, 11 other protesters were killed by military regime gunfire during the crackdown against the anti-regime protests in the town.
During the recent clashes in the township, military forces used lives rounds, machine guns, hand grenades and bomb launchers to attack civilians resisting them, according to the residents of Kale.
Source the Irrawaddy 2nd April 2021.
Not only military outposts are the target of the EAOs, they are now settling old scores against supporters of the regime.
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) carried out an arson attack on a plant of the Yuzana Co in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township early on Thursday, according to local residents. The company has been embroiled in disputes with local people over the confiscation of land in the Hukawng Valley.
“The arson attack took place between 1 am and 2 am. I didn’t hear gunshots. The employees inside the factory put out the fire. I could still hear the sound of burning in the morning,” a resident who lives near the factory said on Thursday.
The plant which was attacked is located near Ledo in Hpakant and produces tapioca starch and sugar.
Some residents said the factory caught fire while KIA soldiers attacked the junta’s security forces. But others said that they did not hear gunshots and that it was purely an arson attack. The KIA’s Brigade 2 is active in Hpakant.
The Irrawaddy was unable to reach the KIA for comment. There were clashes between the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) and the KIA in rural areas of Hpakant and Namti along the Ledo Road on Thursday.
The Yuzana Co was founded by Htay Myint, a businessman linked to the former junta that ruled Myanmar from 1992-2011.
Yuzana has confiscated over 300,000 acres of land in the Hukawng Valley in Hpakant and Tanai townships for cassava cultivation since 2006. The Hukawng Valley is known as the world’s largest tiger reserve.
Kachin residents of Wara Zup village lost their ancestral lands to the Yuzana Co. Their efforts to claim back the land have been met with threats and beatings by Yuzana Co employees in collusion with the local authorities.
Land confiscation has also affected hundreds of Kachin residents along the Ledo Road in Hpakant and Tanai townships. Many have lost their livelihoods along with their land.
Source the Irrawaddy 2nd April 2021.
This is a shrewd move, the more the EAOs target supporters and beneficiaries of the regime the more damage with the least casualties they can inflict. This is the soft weakness of the regime. Their families and cronies have benefited hugely from their regime and if they can be damaged by reason of their support then that support will crumble. If the Tatmadaw then have to divert troops into defending their friends then this will weaken their response in the major centres.
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