Ever vigilant: Army officers standing guard as police officers patrol in Lashio, in this file photo. — AP
Fighters from the country’s most powerful ethnic minority armed group have moved into a strategic town fought over by the junta and another ethnic armed group for weeks, they and the military said.
Fighting has rocked Lashio in northern Shan State since early this month after the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) renewed an offensive against the military.
Last Thursday, the MNDAA claimed it had captured the town of around 150,000 people and the military’s north-eastern command there – a claim denied by the junta.Last Saturday, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) – another ethnic minority armed group with greater manpower – moved personnel into Lashio to “protect” its properties there, its spokesman said.
The UWSA is the best-equipped of Myanmar’s dozen or so ethnic rebel groups, with close ties to China, which analysts say supplies much of its weaponry.
It has so far stayed out of the fighting sparked by the military’s 2021 coup, which reignited decades-old conflicts with some ethnic minority groups.
“Security members from Wa State entered into Lashio town on the night of the 27th to protect our external relations office and properties in Lashio township,” UWSA spokesman Nyi Rang said.
“Before entering the town, we informed both sides which are fighting and entered smoothly with their approval.”
Wa personnel in Lashio “are not going to intervene, cooperate nor give support to the groups which are fighting,” he said.
He did not say how many UWSA fighters were now in the town, or how long they would stay.
The military had “been informed in advance” about the move, the junta’s information team said in a statement, without giving details.
Military sources said yesterday that the north-eastern command was still under its control.
The loss of Lashio and the regional military command would be a huge blow for the junta, which has lost territory to the MNDAA and other armed groups in recent weeks.Beijing was “paying close attention to the situation in northern Myanmar” and urged a halt to the fighting, foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a press conference last Thursday.
Neither the junta nor the MNDAA have released casualty figures from the fighting in Lashio, which broke out on July 3.
Local rescue groups say dozens of civilians have been killed and wounded. — AFP
