The leadership of Karen State’s Border Guard Force (BGF) appears determined to end the organization’s status as a unit of the Myanmar military despite a visit from the regime’s No. 2 leader aimed at persuading them to maintain the status quo, dealing a huge blow to the junta, which has already been weakened by a nationwide anti-regime resistance movement.
Deputy junta leader Vice Senior General Soe Win flew to Karen State on Tuesday to meet some of the BGF leadership following reports that the group’s leader Saw Chit Thu had informed the regime on Jan. 11 that his troops would be neutral in the conflict in the state and no longer answerable to the junta.
BGF chairman Major General Saw Tun Hlaing said Tuesday’s meeting ended in a stalemate, with the BGF leaders insisting that they would no longer be a part of the Myanmar military and would no longer accept any support—including money or supplies—from the military regime, and would not side with any armed force, according to local news outlet the Karen Information Center (KIC).
“He [Soe Win] told us to remain as the BGF and take the salaries and supplies they provide. We replied that we no longer want to fight against our [Karen] people,” he said.
Founded in 2010 under the leadership of Colonel Saw Chit Thu after breaking away from the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), itself a splinter group from the Karen National Union (KNU), the BGF in Karen State is under de-facto military control under the junta-drafted 2008 constitution.
Unlike the BGF, the state’s major ethnic armed group, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)—the armed wing of the KNU—has been fighting the regime since 2021. The BGF has been involved in the junta’s military operations against anti-junta resistance forces in Karen State near the Thai border and is behind Shwe Kokko city, an online scam and gambling hub, in Myawaddy on the border.
In its coverage of Soe Win’s visit to Karen State, the junta’s state media on Wednesday said only that he met government staff and owners of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the state.
Colonel Saw Chit Thu was not available for comment.
On Tuesday, sources on the border told The Irrawaddy that BGF troops on the front lines in Karen State’s Hlaingbwe Township and other areas had retreated to their bases, a sign they were no longer cooperating with the junta’s troops.
A source close to the BGF said 70 percent of the group’s troops agreed it should be independent of the regime, and had refused to serve on the front lines. This followed a meeting between the BGF and regime Information Minister Maung Maung Ohn, Karen State administrator Soe Myint Oo and other officials in Hlaingbwe on Jan. 19. Thai PBS North said the meeting was held at the order of junta boss Min Aung Hlaing to discuss Saw Chit Thu’s decision to withdraw his 13 battalions from the junta’s command.
“Colonel Maung [Saw] Chit Thu informed Myanmar military government negotiators at the meeting that the BGF had already decided to stop supporting Myanmar government forces, withdrawing a total of 13 battalions, comprising Battalion 1011 through Battalion 1023,” Thai PBS reported.
Residents of Hpa-an and Hlaingbwe told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that they no longer saw BFG troops standing sentry at checkpoints, which were now only manned by regime troops and police.
“The BGF troops no longer join the regime forces on patrol,” a resident said.
Currently, BGF troops are still patrolling in Myawaddy town on the Thai border.
BGF chairman Major General Saw Tun Hlaing told the KIC he believed the junta would not make trouble for the BGF over its decision to stop working with the military.
“They could guess it would be problematic for them if they trouble us. Plus, they are now struggling to protect themselves in many areas,” he added, referring to the fact that the regime is currently fighting multiple offensives nationwide.
The junta has suffered a string of defeats in the country’s northeast, northwest, southeast and south, including in Karen State, in the face of unrelenting attacks led by local ethnic armed groups and their resistance allies. So far it has lost more than 30 town across the country to the resistance forces.
Analysts said losing the BGF’s support would be a huge blow for the junta as it relies on the group in Karen State, where it faces mounting armed resistance. Shortly before the coup in 2021, the Myanmar military attempted to force Saw Chit Thu and other leaders of the group to quit the BGF over their involvement in Shwe Kokko. However, it withdrew the order after the BGF leadership threatened to resign en masse.
An observer said the regime’s control of Karen State could be weakened without the BGF, as resistance forces would be emboldened to seize towns and more army bases in the state.
Meanwhile, the KNLA and combined resistance forces have been attacking Kawkareik and have cut off the Kawkareik-Myawaddy section of the Asia Highway, a major route for Myanmar-Thai cross-border trade.
The BGF’s apparent split from the junta comes after Thailand’s recent entreaties to the Myanmar junta to crack down on online scam and gambling sites in Myawaddy Township, including the Shwe Kokko “new city”, a notorious hub for online gambling, cyber scams and human trafficking located just across the border from the Thai town of Mae Sot.
The new city is a joint venture between the BGF and Yatai International, which is owned by She Zhijiang, a Chinese national with Cambodian citizenship who is wanted in China. The Myanmar junta is believed to be involved in scam operations there through the BGF.
On Jan. 12, Min Aung Hlaing discussed the issue at an online meeting with Thailand’s armed forces chief General Songwit Noonpackdee. They agreed to collaborate on combating online scams on the border amid mounting concerns that Chinese citizen-run online scam syndicates will relocate to the Thai-Myanmar border after a crackdown on online criminal gangs in the Kokang area in northern Shan State near the Chinese border. The KNU has pledged that it is ready to work with Thailand and China to combat the scam syndicates in Myawaddy.
Meanwhile, Col. Saw Chit Thu has ordered his troops to gather in Shwe Kokko and Myawaddy and to prepare to defend themselves, Thai PBS North said. According to local residents, authorities in Shwe Kokko on Monday ordered shop owners, restaurants, wayside stalls and street vendors in the new city area to halt all business activities for 10 days.
