Junta-allied ethnic Pa-O armed group the Pa-O National Organization (PNO) has provided military training to 10,000 militia members in Pinlaung Township, one of the three townships that comprise the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone (SAZ) in southern Shan State.
The PNO said the 10,000 fighters from Naungtaya town will undertake defense and security duties in Pinlaung Township under the supervision of its armed wing, the Pa-O National Army (PNA). Pinlaung Township borders Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s administrative capital and the junta’s nerve center.
Naungtaya town is in Pinlaung Township, 29 km north of Pinlaung town.
The military training concluded with a ceremony on Wednesday attended by PNA commanders, PNO members and local people, the ethnic armed group said.
Observers say the militia fighters will be used to defend Naypyitaw, which is 137 km southwest of Pinlaung.
One military analyst said: “You can directly threaten Naypyitaw from Pinlaung and Naungtaya, which are on the direct route to Naypyitaw. They have therefore forcibly trained Pa-O militias in Pinlaung for the defense of Naypyitaw. They are preparing defenses in Pinlaung, Naungtaya and Loikaw to protect Naypyitaw.”
The regime has also mostly retaken control of Karenni State, which borders Naypyitaw, months after local ethnic armies captured half of Loikaw, the state capital. The regime has reinforced its positions in Loikaw town, and started operations to retake Demoso, Hpruso and Bawlakhe townships in Karenni State as well as Moebye and Pekon towns in southern Shan State, just over the border from Karenni State.
Myanmar military Eastern Command chief Major General Zaw Min Latt visited Loikaw town on Tuesday and provided local militias with foodstuffs.
Anti-regime groups in central Myanmar and Karenni get weapons from northern Shan State via the Pa-O SAZ, military analysts said, offering a reason for the junta’s decision to train militias in Pinlaung.
A member of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force in Pinlaung Township said: “The PNO’s influence reaches as far as wards and villages. Ward and village administrators have ties to the PNO. Locals also have to pay tax to them.”
According to the Pa-O Human Rights Organization, the PNO has stepped up forcible recruitment and taxation in Hsi Hseng, Taunggyi, Nyaung Shwe, Hopong and Pinlaung townships since February.
Locals are forced to undergo intensive military training, before being armed and put in uniform. Some are sent to the front line and some assigned as sentries.
One man from Hsi Hseng said: “They often levy taxes for various reasons. We have to give 20,000 to 30,000 kyats [about US$3.15 to $4.75 at current market rates] each time. Almost every village has to undergo military training. People aged between 18 and 50 have to undergo military training. If a household can’t send one family member—for example, if they are working abroad—they have to give 1.2 million kyats.”
In the early days after the February 2021 coup, the PNO forced local people to undergo martial arts and basic military training. In mid-2022 it started months-long military training sessions, recruiting over 2,000 troops in seven batches.
After anti-regime groups launched attacks on Hsi Hseng town in January this year, the PNO again forcibly recruited locals, and the regime supplied thousands of new weapons.
In response to the forcible recruitment of militias in Pinlaung, Khun Rein Yan, the spokesman of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization, which is fighting the regime, said: “We would welcome it if those 10,000 militias would be used to drive the regime, the common enemy of the entire country, out of the Pa-O region. If they work for the regime, it is an increase of 10,000 slaves protecting the military dictatorship. So, it is up to them to decide if they are slaves or free.”
