The military regime plans to evacuate the Defense Services Academy (DSA) and Defense Services Technological Academy (DSTA) from Mandalay Region’s Pyin Oo Lwin as fighting from neighboring Shan State comes closer.
They are to move to the Agricultural University campus in Naypyitaw’s Zeyathiri Township, Deputy Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation Minister Tin Htut told university authorities.
Located in Yezin village, the campus is already home to three universities, the others being the University of Livestock and Veterinary Science and the University of Forestry and Environmental Science.
“We learned from the deputy minister that the DSA [and the DSTA] will be relocated to Yezin within nine months,” a source told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity.
The three universities in Yezin will in turn be turfed out to Maubin and Hinthada townships in Ayeyarwady Region, the source quoted the deputy minister as saying.
News of the planned move came after the defense line was pushed to the vicinity of Pyin Oo Lwin by ethnic armed groups based in northern Shan State.
Ethnic rebels have seized almost all of the state, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army has been fighting the regime in Taung Hkam a two-hour drive from Pyin Oo Lwin.
On the direct route from northern Shan State on Road 3, the regime has set up defenses in Bant Bwe just an hour’s drive from Pyin Oo Lwin.
“From a security perspective, the academies are exposed to attack,” a military analyst said.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing, a DSA alumnus, may be thinking of his own security as he has to attend the two graduation ceremonies in Pyin Oo Lwin every year.
But it has also become difficult for cadets to conduct long-distance marching drills now that fighting is closing in, military defectors said.
Yezin, on the other hand, lies close to the war office headquarters in Naypyitaw, the junta’s nerve center, and offers plenty of mountainous terrain for training nearby.
The military academies in Pyin Oo Lwin provide both military and academic education, producing notorious commanders, many of whom have become millionaires by abusing their power.
The military initially set up the academy in Ba Htoo town in 1955 but moved it to Pyin Oo Lwin in 1957.
Min Aung Hlaing served as DSA commandant in 2003-2004.
