Protesters defend themselves against the troops in Kale, Sagaing region, Myanmar 28 March 2021 in this photo taken on 28 March 2021 obtained by REUTERS
Knots of young men in Tahan in the western city of Myanmar, Kale, were sleeping through their improvised barricades, and they did not expect an attack in the dark before dawn.
Armed with a few hunting rifles made by blacksmiths of the town, catapults, a few rifles and Molotov cocktails, it was not a match for troops hardened by decades of conflict and equipped with combat weapons.
The first protesters of shots and rockets from the army of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, took place on April 7 around 5am, the protesters and residents of Kale said.
That night, the one-sided battle was over, the sandbag barriers were cleared and 13 people were killed, three people in the armed group told Reuters. Soldiers deploy on street corners and remain so until now.
“So many people on our side were injured that we could not do anything and had to withdraw,” Aung Myat Thu, one 20-year-old protester in Kale, told Reuters via messaging app.
Although the resistance in Kale has been rapidly shattered, it marks a new phase of bloodshed in Myanmar following the February 1 coup, with some protesters now seeking to take up arms against the junta’s forces.
The junta did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the junta-controlled newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar, 18 rioters were arrested in Kale after attacking security forces with homemade weapons. “Some of the security forces were seriously injured,” it said.
Despite the early setbacks, diverse groups are trying to acquire better weapons, sharpen tactics, share intelligence and receive training from some of the some twenty existing ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, several opposition politicians have said.
“Some small defense units have been formed across the country, in the community, towns or wards,” said Moe Saw Oo, a spokeswoman for the committee representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH). national unity government.
“At the same time, we are working with ethnic armed organizations on the establishment of a proper army,” he said.
More than 700 people have been killed and more than 3,000 detained by security forces following the nationwide protests that have raged since the army ousted civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.
Although the fighters withdrew in Kale, other groups sprang up elsewhere. Sabotage actions, such as the burning of administrative buildings and attacks on enterprises related to the military, broke out in the capital Yangon and the second city, Mandalay.
“This is a sign of the determination and extreme violence the military is using against protesters, rather than a strategic assessment they can make about the power of the military,” said Richard Horsey, an analyst who recently told the UN Security Council informed about the threat. of national collapse.
Among the new groups, Ayeyarwaddy’s Federal Army last week announced its arrival in the heartland of the Bamar majority, which forms the core of the army as well as Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
“Armed revolution is the only way to give back the power of the people,” spokesman Mr Thu Aung told Reuters via a messaging app.
He did not disclose the location of the group or the extent of the force, and Reuters could not do so independently.
“IF WE DON’T FIGHT BAKE …”
The pressure to organize an armed group in Kale began in mid-March when the army increased the violence against protest marches across the largely Buddhist country by 53 million.
On March 17, police killed at a demonstration against coup – four people – opened fire after protesters after Myohla in the outskirts of Kale rushed, had a 36-year-old activist said.
“From then on, the people, especially the youth, felt we had to do something to defend ourselves,” he said, refusing to give his name to retaliation against his family.
By the end of March, there were at least three barriers around the main market in Tahan, hundreds of people lined up to pile up sandbags. Young people in the city teamed up to form the Tahan Civil Defense Group, local activists said.
The group then raised funds and sought out weapons – mainly rudimentary hunting rifles made by local blacksmiths, they said.
“Initially, we had seven guns that increased to 15 in a short space of time,” the 36-year-old activist said.
The group went on March 26 for a target exercise in a nearby forest. Two days later, the Tahan Civil Defense Group carried out an assault by junata forces. Shortly afterwards, it combined with other local groups to form the Kalay (Kale) civilian army.
Such groups have received help from the CRPH across the country, an official of the group said.
A few thousand young people have received basic training in weapons and combat through at least four ethnic armed organizations, mostly in the border areas of Myanmar, he said.
“More to come,” he said, not wanting to be nominated. “If we do not fight, the future of Myanmar is gone.”
‘DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE TATMADAW’
In Kale, the small trained fighters were encouraged by early success.
The 19-year-old fighter said he was sleeping between the barriers on the highway through Tahan when gunshots woke him up.
“I grabbed my shotgun and two soldiers started shooting at me,” he said. “I had one chance to shoot back, but my gun didn’t work.”
He hides behind a wall and flees during a tranquility.
The Tatmadaw were systematically advancing and blocking escape routes, one member of the resistance in Tahan said.
“We do not understand the Tatmadaw mindset,” the 43-year-old said from a safe house. “It’s our fault.”
Several young fighters were among the 13 dead at the end of a day of fighting, activists said.
Survivors have now gone underground, they said.
“We were no longer safe in Kale,” said the 19-year-old fighter by phone from northeastern India, whose border is just over 100km. Indian authorities declined to comment.
A local NLD legislature involved in the formation of the Kalay Civil Army said fighters were tentatively asked to lay low while equipment and training across Myanmar was improved.
“Perhaps the time will come to fight with the Tatmadaw,” the legislature said, “for that we need good training.”
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