A sentry from an ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s ruling junta stands guard in a town in northern Shan state.
PHOTO: AFP
UPDATED
FEB 19, 2024,
YANGON – Myanmar’s junta has sentenced to death three brigadier-generals who surrendered with hundreds of troops and handed over a strategic town on the Chinese border to ethnic minority fighters in January, military sources said on Feb 19.
Hundreds of soldiers put down their weapons and handed over the town of Laukkai in Shan state to the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance after months of fighting that saw the military lose swathes of territory.
The surrender was one of the biggest single losses for the military in decades, and sparked further criticism of the junta leadership by its supporters.
After the surrender, the officers and their troops were allowed by the alliance to leave the area.
“Three brigadier-generals, including the commander of Laukkai town, were given the death sentence,” a military source told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorised to talk to the media.
Another military source confirmed the sentencing.
Three other brigadier-generals were given life sentences for their role in the surrender of Laukkai, the two sources said.
Laukkai is the largest town seized by the Three Brotherhood Alliance – made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.
The alliance launched a surprise offensive across a swathe of northern Myanmar in late October and has seized several towns and lucrative trade hubs along the border with China.
UPDATED
FEB 19, 2024,
YANGON – Myanmar’s junta has sentenced to death three brigadier-generals who surrendered with hundreds of troops and handed over a strategic town on the Chinese border to ethnic minority fighters in January, military sources said on Feb 19.
Hundreds of soldiers put down their weapons and handed over the town of Laukkai in Shan state to the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance after months of fighting that saw the military lose swathes of territory.
The surrender was one of the biggest single losses for the military in decades, and sparked further criticism of the junta leadership by its supporters.
After the surrender, the officers and their troops were allowed by the alliance to leave the area.
“Three brigadier-generals, including the commander of Laukkai town, were given the death sentence,” a military source told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorised to talk to the media.
Another military source confirmed the sentencing.
Three other brigadier-generals were given life sentences for their role in the surrender of Laukkai, the two sources said.
Laukkai is the largest town seized by the Three Brotherhood Alliance – made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.
The alliance launched a surprise offensive across a swathe of northern Myanmar in late October and has seized several towns and lucrative trade hubs along the border with China.
Sex, drugs and scams
Current junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made a name for himself in 2009 when, as a regional commander, he expelled the MNDAA from Laukkai.
The army then installed a militia that enriched itself by producing drugs and selling gambling and sex to visitors from across the Chinese border.
Laukkai later became notorious for online scam operations in which thousands of Chinese and other foreign nationals – many of them trafficked and working under duress – defraud their compatriots over the Internet.
A source close to the MNDAA recently said the group was working to install a new administration in the town, without giving details.
Analysts say the onslaught has put the embattled junta in its most vulnerable position since it seized power.
It announced in February that it would begin conscripting young men and women into its ranks due to the “current situation”.
No details have been given about how those called up would be expected to serve, but many young people are not keen to wait and find out.
Last week, local media images showed hundreds of people queueing outside the passport office in Mandalay.
And in commercial hub Yangon, thousands of young men and women queued outside the Thai embassy seeking visas to get out of Myanmar last week. AFP
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