22nd September 2021
The junta soldiers are increasing the ferocity and violence in their attacks on innocent villagers. Here is a shot of Thantlang Township in Chin state, where there are only 28 people left in the township, including 2 Covid patients.
The rebels are managing to send clips out of the country again and below is a link to the destruction of the township.
The military followed up by torching houses, just to reinforce their power.
Further stills show the devastation that is being inflicted in Chin state.
This just emphasises the miscalculations by the Tatmadaw. Unlike many other ethnic regions, Chin state was relatively peaceful, with no armed army of its own. Since the coup, it has developed the largest and most effective peoples’ defence force (PDF), pulling troops from the rest of the country, stretching the ability of the Tatmadaw to control the rest of the country.
The rest of the country is also fighting back and the Tatmadaw is taking morale-sapping casualties. Out of an army of 35,000 the casualties aren’t huge, but they are draining morale as the Tatmadaw aren’t used to taking losses.
More than 40 Myanmar junta troops were killed and some civilian resistance fighters were injured during intense firefights in Kayah State and Sagaing Region on Monday.
On Monday morning, an intense firefight between junta soldiers and a combined force of the People’s defence Force-Katha (PDF-K) and the ethnic armed group the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke out in Katha Township, Sagaing Region.
During the firefight, more than 40 junta soldiers were killed and many others were wounded, while no casualties were reported among the combined civilian forces, according to a statement from the Ministry of defence of the National Unity Government (NUG).
Following the clash, the PDF-K urged people using the Katha-Banmauk Highway and traveling in the north of the township to be aware that there would be more firefights in the area.
In May, the KIA also joined the civilian resistance fighters of the PDF-K during a fierce clash with military regime forces in Katha.
During the firefight, eight junta soldiers were killed and 13 seriously injured, while five civilian resistance fighters were killed and one was arrested by the military.
Junta forces used heavy explosives, and many houses in nearby villages were destroyed by the military’s artillery shells, the KNDF said.
Myanmar has seen increasingly intense clashes between junta forces and civilian armed resistance fighters and ethnic armed groups across the country since the declaration of a People’s Defensive War against the junta by the NUG on Sept. 7.
Junta forces have escalated not only their inspections and arrests but also the violence and number of their raids including burning down villages and cutting off internet access, especially in Chin and Kayah states and Magwe and Sagaing regions.
Meanwhile, civilian resistance fighters of the People Defence Forces across the country have stepped up their operations against junta forces and destroyed junta owned Mytel telecom masts in numerous locations.
Two firefights between junta forces and a combined force of the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) and the Karenni Army (KA), the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, also broke out near Daw Poese Villlage in Demoso Township, Kayah State on Monday morning and evening.
The KNDF claimed that junta forces wearing civilian clothes attacked the Karenni armed forces from civilian houses in the village.
During the firefights, a civilian resistance fighter was killed, and some others were wounded. However, the extent of the military casualties remains unknown.
Source The Irrawaddy 21st September 2021.
The junta are finding it difficult to impose control over the country and are losing ground in their traditional stronghold of the dry zone and the central belt (Bamar majority ethnic grouping).
There are interesting things happening on the diplomatic front. The junta tried to replace its ambassador to the UN and the UN refused to recognise their candidate and welcomed the National United Government’s (NUG) person instead.
China is hedging its bets. The withdrawal of western troops from Afghanistan will give China influence there and, in all probability, allow them the use of Bagram airbase. In Myanmar, they are trying to succeed in its BRI projects and gain an Indian Ocean port. With the developments in Afghanistan this is encircling India and will squeeze India’s political influence in the region.
India is countering this by the Quad agreement with the USA, Australia and Japan. Add to this the new submarine and defence deal between Australia, USA and the UK and we can see the alliances of concerned countries coming together to provide opposition to China. In the case of New Zealand it is of strategic influence to China because it will mean that access to Antarctica and its riches becomes easier. New Zealand is going to be exposed and even possibly an unwitting client of China in its expansionist desires. It is rapidly getting to the time where New Zealand will have to take sides and get off the number 8 wire fence.
Indirectly, the happenings in Myanmar are of interest to New Zealand because of Myanmar’s part in China’s global ambitions, and the resulting impact on the Quad and the AUKUS alliances. The global geopolitics are all linked.
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