A Myanmar army officer who defected and fled the country has detailed battlefield losses in the southern part of Chin state, with at least 50 soldiers killed and 200 badly wounded in 2021 by opposition fighters.
Myanmar army defector describes fierce battle with rebelsDocuments seen by Reuters add to evidence of growing rebellionIt says it has security situation largely under control
He also showed Reuters some 30 classified army documents he said backed up his version of recent events in southern Chin state, where civilians opposed to the coup have taken up arms and are working with an established ethnic insurgent group.The documents, stored on his mobile device, add new details of a major clash near the town of Mindat that have not previously been reported.
The Indian home ministry did not reply to a request for comment on Myanmar defectors seeking refuge across the border with Chin. The fighting in the southern areas of Chin, involving hastily formed Chinland Defence Force guerrilla groups, has been"It was only after the May 14 incident that the Tatmadaw started taking the CDF seriously," he told Reuters in an interview. "It was a meeting of ... hunting guns and modern weapons.
A Jan. 10 statement from a CDF group in Kalay said Kaung Thu Win had handed them guns and ammunition. The group said they had led the captain and his wife to a safe area and paid him for the arms. His wife had just given birth to their first child. The military calls the rebellion an "armed insurrection", and military ruler Min Aung Hlaing said there were more than 9,000 "terrorist attacks" last year. The junta said in January it had "largely restored national stability" by the second half of 2021.
During some operations in Shan, he said he saw civilian properties destroyed, but deemed such incidents the inevitable consequence of armed conflict.In 2016, Kaung Thu Win said he was sent to a command post in Chin state's Matupi town. He said he was posted as its liaison officer at a regional command centre in Monywa when the military staged the coup last February.
"I received first-hand information ," he said, "I decided to defect because, after the coup, I've seen so many stories and events where the lives and possessions of citizens were targeted intentionally by the Tatmadaw."
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