BANGKOK, 26 Jun: Units of an ethnic militia in eastern Myanmar that is nominally part of the military have swit-ched sides, allying themse-lves with the country\u2019s pro-democracy movement, and have carried out attacks in recent weeks on army outposts and a police station, its members said.
\nThe two Border Guard Forces units in Kayah state are believed to be the first military-affiliated militia units to change sides since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
\nThe takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but after security forces cracked down with lethal force many local armed resistance groups formed and have been loosely organized into what is called the People\u2019s Defense Force. They have allied themselves with major ethnic guerrilla groups in border regions that have carried out armed struggle for decades, seeking greater autonomy.
\nKayah, which is the smallest of Myanmar\u2019s seven states and dominated by the Karenni ethnic minority, has experienced intense conflict especially since the army seized power. The area borders Thailand and is not far from Myanmar\u2019s capital, Naypyitaw.
\nThere are about two dozen border guard units nationwide with a total of 10,000 armed personnel. The units were formed in 2009 from what had been autonomous ethnic insurgent groups that agreed to a truce with a previous military government.
\nThe National Unity Government, a shadow civilian administration opposed to the military, said about 13,000 soldiers and police officers have defected to its side since the army seized power.
\nThe two border guard units that have joined the resistance forces comprise mostly members of the Karenni Nationalities People\u2019s Liberation Front, an ethnic guerrilla force formed in 1978 by breakaway members of the Karenni National Progressive Party, which has been fighting the central government for more than half a century and is the state\u2019s main armed ethnic organization.
\nA KPNLF member told The Associated Press on Sunday that almost all of the troops in the two units, each with about 300 men, joined local resistance forces that recently destroyed four army outposts and a township police station in Mese in southeastern Kayah.
\nThe member spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information from the group. Mese, where the guerrilla force is headquartered, is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Naypyitaw.
\nHe said some of his fellow guerrilla fighters quietly collaborated with local armed resistance forces even before the militia units openly joined the fighting against the army in Mese in mid-June.
\nAlthough the border units in Kayah were formally affiliated with the army, the Karenni Nationalities People\u2019s Liberation Front had kept some distance from the military regime. A few days after the 2021 takeover, the group issued a statement decrying the military\u2019s seizure of power and urging it to release political detainees. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK, 26 Jun: Units of an ethnic militia in eastern Myanmar that is nominally part of the military have swit-ched sides, allying themse-lves with the country\u2019s pro-democracy movement, and have carried out attacks in recent weeks on army outposts and a police station, its members said. The two Border Guard Forces units in Kayah state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-219221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}