It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, September 16, 2024
Rebel army captures major Myanmar navy training base
The loss of the training base for Myanmar’s navy will be a major blow to junta morale, a state politician said.
By RFA Burmese 2024.09.09
Arakan Army forces after capturing the junta's Central Naval Diving and Salvage Depot in Rakhine state on Sept. 5, 2024.
Arakan Army Information Desk
Insurgents in western Myanmar have captured an important military training base after a month of fighting, the rebel army said in a statement, dealing what is likely to be a severe blow to the embattled military.
.Arakan Army troops seized the Central Naval Diving and Salvage Depot between Thandwe township’s Maung Shwe Lay and Kwin Waing village in Rakhine state on Thursday, said the ethnic minority insurgent force battling for self-determination.
The Arakan Army, or AA, said the facility was the last naval base held by junta forces in Thandwe township, and it was defended on a “huge-scale” by the junta’s air force and navy as well as more than 1,200 soldiers, including many new graduates from the base.
“More than 400 junta soldiers were killed during our attack, and junta weapons, ammunition and equipment were seized,” the AA said in its statement.
Radio Free Asia was not able to independently verify that toll and the junta's main spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, did not respond to requests for comment.
The AA posted pictures of its fighters standing by a diving boards at the training center.
The base is a major navy training facility and its loss will be of huge significance for the military, said Pe Than, a former member of parliament for the Arakan National Party, which in the past had affiliations with the AA.
“Losing such a base will affect training as well as fighting. They’ve destroyed the navy and weakened the army, like cutting a man off at the waist,” he said.
He said the Danyawaddy Naval Base in Kyaukpyu township, to the north of Thandwe, was the navy’s last facility in Rakhine state.
“The military is like a bird with one wing now,” he said.
Arakan Army forces after capturing the junta's Central Naval Diving and Salvage Depot in Rakhine State on Sept. 5, 2024 (Arakan Army Information Desk)
The loss of the base will not only dent the junta’s morale and reputation but also bring in more resources for the AA through the control of goods coming through a nearby port, he said.
The AA said it expected junta retaliation against civilians in the area. Human rights investigators say junta forces have been increasingly attacking civilian targets as they lose ground to insurgent forces in different parts of the country. The military denies attacking civilians.
The Arakan Army, which launched a new offensive against the military in November, controls nine townships in Rakhine state and one in neighboring Chin state, and is battling to take full control of three other townships.
Junta forces have launched crackdowns in the north of the state, near the Bangladesh border, and across the neighboring Ayeyarwady region after AA gains in the south of the state.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
China in delicate dance with Myanmar’s rebel groups
The junta ally is likely trying to end conflict along its borders, but its assets are under rebel control.
By RFA Burmese 2024.09.12
A worker arranges watermelons imported from Myanmar at a wholesale fruit market, Jan. 13, 2023 in Ruili, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province of China.
Nearly 2 million people in Myanmar’s northern Shan state are facing a shortage of medicine and other basic commodities after China shuttered its border, according to residents and ethnic rebels, who said prices for goods have “skyrocketed” in the region over the past two weeks.
On Aug. 25, Chinese authorities closed border gates serving 20 Shan state townships and Myanmar’s junta began restricting trade routes, as a group of rebel factions known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance pushed the military out of major towns in the region.
The alliance, which first launched an offensive against the military in October 2023, now controls 21 townships in northern Shan state, as well as five border gates in the townships of Kyin Sang Kyaut, Chinshwehaw, Yan Long Keng, Mone Koe, and Nam Hkam.
Lway Yay Oo, the spokeswoman of one of the ethnic alliance members known as the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, told RFA Burmese that residents of areas under its control no longer have access to the basic necessities they had come to rely on through border trade.
“Since China closed the border gates, and the junta has blocked trade routes, there is a serious shortage of medicine in our area,” she said.
People visit the first Myanmar's Lashio-China's Lincang border economic and trade fair in Lashio, Myanmar, Nov. 21, 2019. (Haymhan Aung/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Residents of northern Shan state said they believe that China – one of the junta’s few international allies and the largest foreign investor in Myanmar – shut down the border as part of a pressure campaign to end armed conflict in the area.
“Some pharmacies have tried to get medicine to sell, but it's not enough,” said a resident of Kutkai township who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“It is difficult to get medicine for the sick and vaccinate the children,” he said, adding that people in the area cannot afford to pay to have supplies delivered from Myanmar’s urban centers, such as Yangon, which are dealing with their own shortages amid the country’s civil war.
Residents said that the prices of remaining stock have “skyrocketed” since the gate closures.
A pharmacy owner in northern Shan state, who also declined to be named, told RFA that since the junta cut off trade routes, only small quantities of the most important drugs are being transported within the region.
"It is not easy to transport medicine, and we can only smuggle urgently needed supplies,” he said. “Chinese medicine is out of stock now, although we can get B-6 and B-12 [vitamin supplements].”
Attempts by RFA to contact Khun Thein Maung, the junta’s minister of economy and spokesperson for Shan state, for comment on the situation went unanswered Thursday, as did efforts to reach representatives from China’s Embassy in Yangon.
Protecting Chinese interests
China’s border closure follows three separate meetings last month between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Ma Jia and junta representatives, during which Beijing sought assurances that the military regime would protect its projects and citizens in the country.
In response, the junta pledged to prioritize the safety of China’s assets, according to a statement released by Chinese authorities.
But amidst the intensifying conflict in Myanmar, control over at least 10 Chinese projects has shifted from the military to armed opposition groups, including ethnic rebels and the anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, according to an Aug. 19 report by the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar.
A woman works at a motorbike factory in China Yunnan Pilot Free Trade Zone Dehong Area in Dehong, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 4, 2019. (Jiang Wenyao/Xinhua via Getty Images)
They include the Muse Border Economic Cooperation Zone, Kunlong Dam, Kunlong Bridge, Chinshwehaw Border Economic Trade Zone, Naung Pha Dam, Lancang-Mekong Environmental Cooperation Center, Goteik Bridge and New Road Project, Sinn Shwe Li-2 Sugar Factory, Alpha Cement Factory and Takaung Nickel Factory, the group said.
When questioned about the situation, TNLA spokeswoman Lway Yay Oo told RFA that all Chinese projects under her group’s control in northern Shan state are currently suspended.
"Given the ongoing instability in the region, we have temporarily suspended all investments,” she said. “Moving forward, we are working to develop the necessary policies in order to resume operations when conditions allow.”
Junta ‘no longer accountable’
Nay Phone Latt, spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, told RFA that the junta no longer has the capacity to safeguard Chinese projects.
"The current regime is in a position where it is unable to ensure its own security, let alone protect the citizens of the country,” he said. “I want to clearly state that it can no longer be held accountable for the safety of international investment projects, foreign workers, or the security of those involved."
Nay Phone Latt noted that the PDF is currently providing security for the Takaung Nickel Plant, a US$855 million Chinese-owned mining project. He said that while “discussions have taken place” between the NUG and China regarding the plant, he could not disclose details of the talks at this time.
In addition to the China-Myanmar oil and natural gas pipeline, ethnic rebel groups may partially control railways, roads, waterways and trade routes within the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, which forms part of China’s broader Silk Road infrastructure initiative.
Chinese farmer Yukan who sells vegetables at a market in Myanmar, queues to leave a border crossing in Menghai county, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Jan. 11, 2020. (Hu Chao/Xinhua via Getty)
According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, at least nine Chinese investment projects in Kyaukphyu and Thandwe townships, located in Rakhine state, are now partially controlled by the Arakan Army, or AA.
When asked for comment, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha said that foreign investment projects will be protected. "All parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Myanmar have expressed the need to safeguard China’s interests,” he said.
RFA contacted junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun regarding the Chinese projects now under the control of ethnic groups, but received no response.
Translated by Kalyar Lwin and Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
Arakan Army forces after capturing the junta's Central Naval Diving and Salvage Depot in Rakhine state on Sept. 5, 2024.
Arakan Army Information Desk
A worker arranges watermelons imported from Myanmar at a wholesale fruit market, Jan. 13, 2023 in Ruili, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province of China.
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