(Based
on the Burmese posts from the FACEBOOK in July-August, 2021.)
On July-28 the Maqui-einnu forward-army-camp
surrendered to the attacking CDF forces. Eight Myanmar Army soldiers and four
Myanmar Policemen led by army captain Thein Htaik changed side to PDF. A
graduate from DSA intake-55, Captain Thein Htaik was a company commander from
Mindat-based LIB-274.
CDF had been raiding small police outposts all over the township and capturing the police guns and ammunitions and On July-30 early morning a battalion strength army reinforcement coming down from Matupi was ambushed by nearly a 1,000 strong heavily-armed CDF at the 73-Mile-Post on Mindat-Matupi Road.
The army
battalion commander Lt. Colonel Zaw Zaw Soe and ten were killed in the battle
and their bodies were abandoned and the army column withdrew back to Matupi
Town. CDF then celebrated the rout of Myanmar Army battalion by posting the photos of dead Myanmar Army officer, hastily buried in a shallow grave, on their social media sites all over Internet.
Chins Were Once On the Myanmar Army’s Side!
Since the
independence in January 1948 the Chins amazingly were always on the side of
Myanmar Army fighting a never-ending civil war against other ethnic rebel
groups such as Kachin, Karen, Shan, and Mon, etc.
Original Burma
Army left by the British colonial masters even had three ethnic battalions
called the Chin Rifles Battalions, three of them – First Chin, Second Chin, and
Third Chin. Only in 1988 when Burma Army started calling themselves Myanmar
Army, the three Chin Rifles battalions were re-batched as LIB-307, LIB-308. and
LIB-313, respectively.
The famous Chin
warrior soldier Captain Taik Chun once was the only one alive awarded with
Burma’s highest bravery valor medal Aung-San-Thuria. But the late student
activist leader Tin Maung Oo hanged in 1976 for leading the failed U Thant Uprising
in 1975 was a brave young Chin too.
Chin State with
the population of only about five million was the poorest and the least
developed state of Burma with just under 60 million souls. They just got
electricity connected for the very first time in Burma’s history. So Chins has
every reason to rebel against the quite domineering Burmese and the Myanmar
Army.
But the degree
of oppression and pressure placed by the Myanmar Army on a rebel group only
about 5,000 strong in last few months was incredibly strong for some strategic
reasons. The Defense Industries facilities built just below the hills east of
the Mindat region recently in the last two decades are the reasons.
 |
| Chin COs of CHIN-1 and CHIN-2 Rifle Battlaions. |
Are Ka-Pa-Sa Weapons Facilities Facing Existential Threats?
Western bank of
Irrawaddy in the arid Middle-Burma was always considered a secured area for the
strategic thinkers of Myanmar Army since General Ne Win’s early dictatorship
period in 1960s and 70s.
The
insurgents-free long-flat-strip between miles-wide Irrawaddy on right and high
ranges on the left was considered a perfect location for then fledgling Defense
Industries called Ka-Pa-Sa in Burmese. Started earlier below Minbu Town
opposite across Irrawaddy from Magwe City, tens and tens of large DI and HI
(Heavy Industries) factories were built and eventually extended well above
Magwe all the way upto near the Monywa City on Chindwin River.
Bassein-Monywa Strategic Highway was mainly built to
locate four large Defense Industry facilities namely; DI-21 and DI-22 at near
Seikphyu Town, DI-24 at near Pauk Town, and DI-25 at near Saw Town.
Two decades
later these four large DI facilities are finding themselves backing right up to
the threatening Chin township of Mindat. If Mindat falls to CDF the whole Chin
State can eventually fall into the hostile hands of suddenly rebellious Chins.
Right now no one
really knows what these DI facilities have been producing. But there are some
suspicions that some of these facilities have been doing some nasty stuff like
nuclear weapons research with the aid of bloody North-Koreans.
Battle for Mindat: People Vs Military (Part 4)