A brigadier-general who in April led his troops in a retreat from their base during a fierce battle with resistance forces for control of the border town of Myawaddy became the latest officer to be punished by the junta over its humiliating military defeats, according to sources in Naypyitaw.
Brigadier-General Soe Min Htet, the former commander of 44th Light Infantry Division, was jailed for 14 years earlier this month, the sources said. He was tried at a military tribunal at the South Eastern Command where he was accused of abandoning his base without permission.
He was sent to Taungoo Prison, they said.
The temporary loss of Myawaddy in April delivered another crushing blow to the military’s reputation of being a fierce and competent force.
Troops from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and People’s Defence Force quickly sliced through junta positions near and then in the border trade town of Myawaddy in early April.
During the offensive, Brig-Gen Soe Min Htet led his troops from Light Infantry Battalion 275 in Myawaddy town to withdraw to the No. 2 Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge linking Myawaddy with Mae Sot, Thailand on the other side of the Moei River, in mid-April.
Soe Min Htet was injured during daylong clashes on April 20 between his troops and resistance forces at the bridge on April 20. He was taken across the border to a hospital in Mae Sot and then flown back to Myanmar by the regime. After recovering, Soe Min Htet was tried, found guilty, sentenced and then sent to Taungoo Prison.
The regime later reoccupied the base of Light Infantry Battalion 275 with the help of its ally, the Karen State Border Guard Force.
Earlier this year, three regime generals were sentenced to death and four others given lengthy jail sentences for surrendering to resistance forces in the Kokang region of northern Shan State.
The junta also sacked Central Command chief Major General Kyi Khaing earlier this month.
Kyi Khaing was replaced after Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa, 78, a senior monk and a prominent Buddhist teacher and author, was shot dead on June 19. The monk was killed as he traveled by car in Mandalay Region, where military operations are overseen by the Central Command.
Junta media initially blamed armed resistance groups for the killing before the regime was forced to admit responsibility.
