After declaring the three ethnic armies that comprise the Brotherhood Alliance to be
“terrorist” groups, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has threatened to “respond as necessary” to ethnic rebels.
The junta leader made the threat as he met Shan State government officials of his regime in Taunggyi, southern Shan on Tuesday. People living in territory held by the ethnic armed groups must “stay alert”, the junta boss warned.
The regime on Tuesday designated as terrorist organizations the Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which have seized control of almost the entirety of northern Shan State along with a regional command in northeastern Myanmar, and more than half of Rakhine State in western Myanmar in less than a year.
The junta retaliated with an air raid on Lashio, the capital of northern Shan State now controlled by the MNDAA, on Aug. 30. On Tuesday evening, it also bombed TNLA-controlled Mantung Township from the air. Earlier, it carried out at least four aerial attacks on Laukkai, home to the MNDAA’s headquarters.
While visiting the Eastern Command during his tour of Taunggyi, Min Aung Hlaing also had a warning for sympathizers of the ethnic rebels, saying those with ties to the AA, MNDAA and TNLA are “aiding and abetting terrorism”.
Min Aung Hlaing also repeated his vow to restore peace and stability across the country. When he visited Mandalay, where the Myanmar military’s Central Command is based, last month, the junta chief said his regime would “restore pre-coup levels of peace and stability in the country”—a statement at odds with reality.
Min Aung Hlaing has mostly remained ensconced in the regime’s nerve center, Naypyitaw, even after a string of major military defeats in northern Shan State and the unprecedented fall of a regional command.
He ventured out of Naypyitaw only recently, after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the Myanmar’s administrative capital in mid-August. He has since traveled to Bago, Mandalay, Yangon and Taunggyi to deliver his threats to the ethnic rebels.
Beijing has been pushing ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar to sit down for peace talks with the regime. Recently it conducted a live-fire military drill on the Chinese side of the border with northern Shan State, before issuing an explicit threat to the TNLA to stop fighting the junta.
Chinese special envoy to Myanmar Sun Guoxiang has met leaders of ethnic armed groups including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which is fighting the regime in Kachin State and Sagaing Region, and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which is believed to be supplying the MNDAA and TNLA.
Beijing has also closed border crossings in northern Shan State, cutting off supplies of fuel, medicine and food to ethnic armies.
There have been reports that the regime is preparing a counteroffensive dubbed Operation Sinbyushin to retake northern Shan State, to be led by deputy junta chief Soe Win.
