Changes in Myanmar
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Anti-government protesters are on the rise in Myanmar’s government forces and telephone towers after announcing a “war” with the National Unity Government, a similar minister formed by supporters of incumbent leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
General Min Aung Hlaing’s forces have killed scores of civilians and civilians and set fire to villages without retaliation in recent days, according to local journalists. Investigators said NUG’s idea of rejecting violence against the junta was dangerous because it sought help and recognition from outsiders, including the UN.
Duwa Lashi La, the NUG’s The caretaker president, announced in a video last week that the equal government is launching a “civil war against the military”. He urged government forces to take part in the fight against the insurgency, and “warned and reprimanded” civil servants who had worked hard to seize power on February 1 to go to work.
Some of the “People’s Security Forces” – terrorist groups that began months after the verdict – continue to detonate bombs and shoot at soldiers and police, according to local newspaper reports. Most of the violence in central and western Myanmar in the Sagaing and Magway states and in Chin State, as well as in Yangon’s largest city.
“PDFs have devised a system of stability that makes government impossible,” said Anthony Davis, Bangkok and IHS-Janes security analyst. “It is forcing the country to do things that have not happened in the civil war, but in the chaos, and the collapse of the regime in rural areas.”
Independent site reports that, in the first two days of the NUG declaration, PDF fighters killed at least 20 troops in Magway and Yangon, where a bomb exploded in several vehicles.
The militants are said to have killed between 15 and 22 people, including non-combatants and youths, in the town of Magway in Gangaw, one of the places where PDF fighters have been operating. In Myaung, Sagaing, troops on Sunday said burnt village after the military protested against the police and attacked the military, about 20 of whom are said to have killed.
Adding to their frustration with the government’s views, experts said fighting the gun threatens a very good enemy. While most of the first weapons were used with hunting rifles, Davis, a researcher for Janes, said some of the most useful PDFs were armed only. Guerrillas, he added, was attacking the government with explosives.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Sasa, NUG’s minister for international relations, defended the military’s actions. “The people of Myanmar are using force to protect themselves from the military atrocities perpetrated by the military,” he said in a statement. “Villages, towns and regions across the country are being attacked by the armed forces using weapons.”
He said the PDFs were in compliance with international law and human rights law and “above all, the Geneva conventions,” which oversees the war effort.
However, another researcher said NUG’s support for the war effort would be closely monitored. “This announcement indicates that there will be a greater law and regulation, which raises red flags for potential violations of international law,” said Manny Maung, a Human Rights Watch researcher.
The change in NUG’s expertise comes ahead of international talks at the UN General Assembly on such issues Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s envoy who has pledged allegiance to the relevant government, should be allowed to continue his duties, or be elected to a junta instead.
Follow John Reed on Twitter: @JohnReedwrites