(Staff article from the Guardian UK on 20 June 2024.)
As the drones flew silently over western Myanmar’s
Chin hills, the junta did not know what was about to hit them. Their operators
were hidden a few hundred metres away in the dense forest. As the images on
their screens indicated the drone fleet was hovering exactly above the target –
a key military base in the town of Lailenpi – they hit the button on their
controllers and bombs began to fall.
We had precise hits,” said Noah, 20, one of the specialist drone fighters in the Chin National Army (CNA), one of the ethnic rebel groups who have been fighting Myanmar’s military for almost three years. “It took them by surprise. We killed many, including the second-in-command of the base.” After three days of fighting, the rebels hoisted their tricolour flag over the base and shouted slogans of victory.
In the bloody
war between the military junta, who toppled the democratically elected
government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and seized control in a coup in February
2021, and the rebel groups who have been fighting to restore democracy since, a
significant shift has been taking place.
The junta has now lost control of more than 50% of
the country, and in Chin state, which borders India, the CNA rebel forces say
they have managed to capture back 70% of the province, including five key
military bases.
The secret to
their recent victories, they say, is a new fleet of drones and an army of rebel
soldiers – most of whom were once ordinary civilians – who have spent over a
year training to operate them. “Drones have been key to our success,” said Ram
Kulh Cung, the CNA’s assistant general secretary. “The attacks, like those at
Lailenpi, have been carried out after months of planning and training.”
During a recent visit to Camp Victoria, the central headquarters of the CNA in Chin state, they showed the Observer the vast fleet of thousands of commercial and agricultural drones – otherwise known as unmanned aerial vehicles – they had imported, mostly from China but also from western countries such as the United States, to hit the junta-controlled territory in targeted attacks.
Since the
military, known as the Tatmadaw, took power, they have overseen a brutal
nationwide crackdown. Its soldiers have been accused of arbitrary arrests,
torture, mass killings, rapes and abuses that, according to Human Rights Watch,
amount to crimes against humanity. More than 4,000 civilians have been reported
to have been killed in the conflict since the coup.
Until recently,
the military have had the heavy advantage of a highly technical air force,
which has been used to carry out hundreds of deadly airstrikes – often
targeting areas of resistance – which have killed thousands.
Yet the fleet of
fighter jets is costly for the junta to maintain and operate, and increasingly
proving no match for the drones being cheaply and expertly utilised by the
rebel armies against the military-controlled areas. Junta spokesperson Zaw Min
Tun conceded that they had been facing heavy assaults and the insurgents had
been using drones to drop hundreds of bombs on military posts.
Indian army officials said that most of the border
posts on the Myanmar side had been either overrun by rebels or are under
threat. In the past two months, more than 400 Myanmar army soldiers have fled
across the border to the Indian state of Mizoram, following rebel attacks.
So successful has the drones technology been in rebel warfare that the junta has also started using commercial drones to carry out attacks but has lacked the necessary training to use them as efficiently as the rebel fighters.
“The use of
drones has created a tectonic shift in Myanmar’s battlefield,” said Angshuman
Choudhury, an associate fellow at Delhi-based thinktank Centre for Policy
Research. “They have not completely closed the tactical asymmetry between the
military and resistance forces, but have diminished it significantly.”
He said the
drones have created a “sense of fear among the junta rank-and-file that they
are being watched discreetly and could be attacked from the air anytime,
anywhere – something that was absolutely unthinkable before the coup.”
The CNA is now one of the rebel armies that has a dedicated
drones department, established over a year ago, whose footsoldiers have learned
to operate the technology mostly through months of operational practice and
tutorials on YouTube.
“The drone
department consists of skilled young fighters – some who were engineering
students and some who have gained knowledge of drones as a hobby,” said Cung.
“The department also relies hugely on the internet to upgrade the skills and
train more people.” The technology, said Cung, was “turning the tables” but
added: “Procuring weapons and drones is not easy for us. There is nothing easy
in war.”
Commanders said
that most of the military equipment was coming in via the borders with China
and Thailand rather than through India, which had been keeping a tight control
on any kind of weapons inflow.
CNA leadership
also attributed the recent successes of the resistance forces to a greater
alliance and increased coordination between the different armed ethnic minority
groups fighting the junta across Myanmar, who in the past had not always worked
harmoniously due to differing priorities and infighting.
In late October, three insurgent groups – known as
the Three Brotherhood Alliance – launched “Operation 1027”, to take on junta
troops in Shan state near Myanmar’s border with China. Furthering the
nationwide momentum behind the assault, other rebel groups, including the
Arakan Army and CNA, supported the operation from their own regions.
Ultimately, several towns and more than 100 military outputs were taken from
the junta in the offensive.
Last week, in what many took as a sign of the growing weakness of the junta, the military and an alliance of rebel groups announced a China-mediated ceasefire along Myanmar’s border with China. However, the CNA was not party to it and commanders told the Observer they would not be abiding by it in Chin state.
At Camp Victoria
headquarters, every morning hundreds of newly recruited cadets – who get just a
few months training before being sent to the frontlines – take part in a
parade. Yet even as morale was high following the recent spate of victories,
the nearby cemetery also revealed how this battle is still not an easy one.
More than two dozen young fighters killed in the recent operations had been
laid to rest, their tombstones engraved with lines of valour honouring their
actions in battle.
But with drones
opening up a new frontier of warfare for Myanmar’s rebel armies, Sabu, 49, a
commander in the CNA’s drones department, was among those who felt a renewed
confidence in their chances of defeating the junta. “We were bad at using them
initially and missed most of the targets in the first year,” he said.
However, the dedicated training was now paying off, he said, and several of their recent successful ground offensives against the junta had been preceded by pre-dawn drone strikes. “Drones are our air force,” said Sabu. “We will win this war with them.”