3rd February 2022.
February 1st was the anniversary of the coup in Myanmar. It was marked in Myanmar by silent protest and absences from work.
I have not been sending updates from Myanmar because of concern for my sources there. I feel happier today because some have managed to leave the country and settle in more friendly nations.
The military is embarking on a scorched earth policy:
Magway’s oil industry is facing huge financial losses after the Burmese military set fire to all eight oil fields of Pauk and Myaing townships. Local traders told DVB that fires, the most recent of which was set at 6 p.m. last night, continue to rage, causing consternation amongst the tens of thousands of people said to rely on proceeds from the industry. Around 500 military personnel are reported to have been sent to the oil fields. Front line soldiers had allegedly demanded money from owners as other troops systematically began to set fire to every site along the main road. PDF groups say that junta troops were able to seize sizable taxes from the fields. There are said to be thousands of oil wells in the affected area, covering around 50 plots of land between Myaing and Pauk townships. Those in the region say that approximately 100,000 people relied on the businesses and lands that have been destroyed by the military.
This is self-defeating as it reduces cash that was previously going from the oil industry to the military and their cronies.
The military resistance continues. The People Defence Forces (PDF) started as informal local responses to the military actions. Poorly armed and untrained they managed to gain some success. Gradually, they allied with Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) and continued on a regional basis, improving weaponry and receiving training. There are now attempts being made to coordinate on a national basis and they are forming ties with the National Unity Government (NUD). They are avoiding pitch battles and are concentrating on ambushes, guerrilla action and selective targeting of Junta administrators and officials. This is having a debilitating effect on the soldiers as their casualties are slowly increasing.
Around 200 junta troops including a battalion commander were reportedly killed within three days during a series of intense clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, according to local residents and media outlets.
The fierce fights between military regime forces and the KIA occurred near Kat Hmaw Village in Hpakant from Thursday, according to the local residents and news outlets based in Kachin State.
“There were fierce clashes amid continuous rain. A junta battalion commander died in the fighting. More than 200 junta soldiers died in three days. The clashes continue,” a source close to the KIA told The Irrawaddy.
Sources said the People’s Defense Force (PDF) had joined the KIA’s battalions in the fight against the regime’s forces.
After sustaining heavy losses, the junta launched indiscriminate airstrikes against KIA troops and civilian targets in the area while airlifting in reinforcements on Saturday, according to local media.
“The junta used its air force to bomb [the area] on Saturday. Before the airstrike, a battalion commander died in the attacks by the KIA and PDF,” a local resident told The Irrawaddy.
A house was hit in a junta airstrike in Kat Hmaw Village in Hpakant Township, Kachin State on Saturday.
Many regime soldiers who were airlifted into the area on Saturday were also killed in clashes on the same day, local media reported.
Video footage shows military reinforcements being airlifted in on helicopters and a jet fighter attacking ground targets.
Two civilians were also killed, and two others seriously injured when a military jet fighter and a helicopter gunship indiscriminately attacked Kat Hmaw Village on Saturday. Some houses were destroyed in the junta air strikes.
On Friday, the junta also used two jet fighters and a helicopter gunship to attack KIA troops in the area.
At 4 a.m. on Monday morning, a shootout occurred in Phankharkone Village, Bamaw Township when an unknown group attacked a junta police outpost in the village, said Kachinwaves, a local media outlet.
Additionally, an intense clash between 300 junta troops and a combined KIA/PDF force broke out near Lonsharyan Village in Putao Township on Monday morning, according to the media outlet.
Currently, the military regime is facing intense attacks from PDFs and many ethnic armed groups across the country.
Source The Irrawaddy 7th February 2022.
Further confirmation of the anxiety felt by the military was the proposed introduction of compulsory national service suggested by General Min Aung Hlaing.
At a meeting in Naypyidaw today, the coup leader reiterated that every citizen had a responsibility to serve in the military for two to three years under the country’s People’s Military Service Law.
The junta has made frequent references to universal conscription since the coup, as it roundly fails to recruit new soldiers.
The senior general said that conscription was one of the three major aims of his dictatorship, the first being to grow the country’s economy “according to the experience of last year” (a strange ambition considering the World Bank this month said that Burma’s economy was 30% smaller than it would have been without the coup).
Source DVB February 3rd, 2022.
The military has problems recruiting, as potential recruits don’t fancy being shot at due to the increased activity by the rebels. This has all sorts of implications. It could result in recruits being trained and defecting, new recruits opening the eyes of current soldiers to what is happening outside the military bubble and providing a source of possible dissent within the army. It is bound to increase conflict within the military.
