In search of safety: A Thai soldier checking the bag of a Myanmar national at the Tak border checkpoint in Thailand’s Mae Sot district. — AFP
About 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge to Thailand after a days-long assault by the anti-junta resistance, which declared it had won control of the critical border town of Myawaddy, the latest in a string of rebel wins.
Myanmar’s military-run government is battling insurgencies on several fronts and has suffered a series of defeats in frontier areas since last October, when rebel groups launched a coordinated offensive near the Chinese border.
The impoverished South-East Asian nation has been in turmoil after the military deposed an elected civilian government in a 2021 coup, sparking a nationwide armed resistance that is now operating alongside some long-established ethnic rebel groups.
“Today KNU-led joint resistance forces captured the remaining military base in Myawaddy,” Kyaw Zaw, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s National Unity Government, said.
The body is a shadow administration of ousted lawmakers and anti-junta groups.
“This is a crucial victory for our revolution since Myawaddy is an important border town... one of the main (sources of) income from border trade,” he added.
The retreat of junta troops in Myawaddy, adjacent to the Thai town of Mae Sot, signals the potential loss of another key border trading outpost with direct highway access to parts of central Myanmar.
Yesterday, about 200 fleeing Myanmar soldiers gathered at a border crossing into Thailand, said Saw Taw Nee, spokesperson for the Karen National Union (KNU), an anti-junta group leading the assault on Myawaddy.
News outlet Khit Thit said Thai authorities were in talks with the soldiers to decide whether to grant them refuge.
Border crossings in the area were open for civilians who were arriving in Thailand from Myanmar in large numbers, said police official Borwornphop Soontornlekha, the immigration superintendent in Tak, the province where Mae Sot is located.
“Usually there are about 2,000 people who cross into Mae Sot from Myawaddy each day but the last three days the number was almost 4,000 a day,” Borwornphop said. — Reuters
