The junta on Monday canceled plans to evacuate personnel trapped in the Karen State border town of Myawaddy to Yangon from the international airport in the nearby Thai border town of Mae Sot, according to Thai media reports.
Initially, junta officials requested that the Thai government approve the landing of three evacuation flights in Mae Sot from Yangon over three days, April 7 to 9, after Myawaddy was attacked by Karen ethnic soldiers and allied resistance troops.
A Myanmar Airways ATR 72-600 jet landed in Mae Sot at 9.20pm on Sunday to retrieve officials and their dependents who had fled Myawaddy to Mae Sot, the Bangkok Post reported.
Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Jakkapong Sangmanee told media on Monday that the flight comprised a normal transfer of civilians. It was not a military operation and it followed approved procedures with no weapons or soldiers transported, he said.
Major General Narongrit Panikabut of Thailand’s 4th Infantry Division confirmed on Monday that the Myanmar government had sought assistance for the transport of “vulnerable people and important documents” from Myawaddy.
Thai Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Thanawat Sirikul told a press conference on Monday afternoon that Myanmar canceled the second and third planned evacuation flights from Mae Sot International Airport, but no explanation for the cancelations was given, Thai media reported.
Citing a source from a branch of the junta-controlled Myanma Economic Bank in Myawaddy, the Karen Information Center reported that the junta’s first flight transported money from a branch of that bank and branches of other private banks based in Myawaddy, including KBZ.
The source also told the ethnic Karen media outlet that an executive from Myanma Economic Bank transported money by vehicle to Mae Sot International Airport via the No. 2 bridge linking Myawaddy and Mae Sot.
Regime officials and their family members were instructed to be ready for evacuation flights, the source said.
The junta’s move came after the ethnic Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allied People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) were poised to seize the border town, where the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 275 and only a few junta bases are left.
Resistance groups captured all three junta battalions and a junta strategic base at Thingyan Nyi Naung Town near Myawaddy in the past several days.
During the seizure of the junta’s strategic bases in the area last Friday, a total of 617 regime forces – including tactical commanders and 67 officers – surrendered to resistance groups, the Karen National Union (KNU) said. The KNLA is its armed wing.
A state-owned Myanmar National Airlines ATR 72-600 arrived at Mae Sot International Airport at 8.40 pm local time on Sunday.
The plane carrying junta officials from Myawaddy left Mae Sot Airport at 10 pm local time, according to sources close to the KNU.
“Department heads, including administration staff, were taken [back to Myanmar] on a special flight tonight,” a source close to the KNU told The Irrawaddy on Sunday night.
The KNLA and allied PDFs unleashed an onslaught against the regime’s Light Infantry Battalion 275 in Myawaddy on Friday.
The two sides have since been holding talks but secured no agreement so far.
While the regime is evacuating its employees, it is also reinforcing its troops in Myawaddy, according to sources close to the KNU.
Several junta-run government offices closed their doors in Myawaddy on Monday.
