(Based on staff articles from Burmese Facebook Pages in March-April 2022.)
Just last March, Major Tin Lin Aung the deputy
commander of Boat-pyinn based LIB-585 surrendered to the KNLA (Karen National
Liberation Army) forces in the Lay-kay-kaw region in Myawaddy Township on
Thai-Burma border. His battalion has been fighting KNLA there for weeks now
since last February. He brought one MA-3 and one MA-1 assault rifles and a
pistol along with him.
He declared in
the press interview immediately after his surrender that mad army chief MAH is
sacrificing the lives and limbs of Myanmar Army soldiers by treating the people
of Burma as enemies because they overwhelmingly reject his power-grab from the
legitimately-elected ASSK Government.
He said he is a soldier and previously his fights were only the military affairs but since last February his fights are turning into a political fight to keep the power in the hands of MAH and his generals who have been benefitting handsomely while soldiers like him are losing faith in their brutally oppressive army.
He added that
nowadays people hate them soldiers and even their own parents and close
relatives are encouraging them to desert the army and join the side of people
and thus he had decided to abandon the hated army and surrender to the KNLA.
PDFs Are Killing the Parents of Serving & Retired Soldiers
There are many
alarming cases of local PDF (People Defense Forces) killing the parents of serving
or even retired members of hated Myanmar Army. On April-2 at about 9 in the
morning, unknown gunmen in Mogoke Town shot dead Ko Myo and Cho Cho the parents
of army engineer Captain Kyaw Myo Hein.
The couple was
wounded lightly in last December when the local PDF members tried to
assassinate them at their house. This time they didn’t survive the multiple
gunshots fired at them just outside their house.
On April-10 a
Rangoon PDF unit ambushed and killed army major Kuday Phyo Aung the township military
administrator of Lan-ma-daw Township in Rangoon City. Another PDF unit then did
a drive-by shooting of the housing estate where the families of General Min
Aung Hlaing and General Soe Win on exclusive Rangoon’s Inya Avenue.
Only 22 Burmese men applied for more than 2,000 DSA vacancies
Every year the
DSA (Defense Services Academy) admitted nearly 2,000 matriculated young men and
most of them were from the Burmese stronghold of Mandalay Division of Proper
Burma. But this year only 22 candidates applied.
Apparently most
hot-blooded young Burmese men willing to fight are now joining the PDF (People
Defense Force) to fight against Myanmar Army since the military repression began
after the last year February Coup.
Myanmar Army on
the verge of collapse is being depleted so far down that most infantry
battalions have less than half of their organizational strength. Instead of
fighting the ethnic insurgents on the border lands Myanmar Army is now facing its
own people and the resulting low moral is causing so many desertions from both officer
ranks and ordinary soldiers.
 |
| Only 22 applied for 2,000 intake at DSA this year. |