Fifty-two years after it was founded to fight the Communist Party of Burma in northeastern Myanmar near the Chinese border, the military’s Northeastern Command in Lashio, northern Shan State, fell on Saturday.
The defeat marks the first time since 1962, when the military staged its first coup, that a military command has been lost to ethnic armed groups and their allies. It was also a major milestone for Myanmar’s resistance movement, which has captured its first command since the 2021 coup.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and allies seized both Lashio and Northeastern Command one month after launching their offensive on July 3.
The Lashio defeat is the biggest blow so far to a military regime that takes pride in the command’s historic achievements. Junta spokesman Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun recently declared, “Among the 14 military commands in the Tatmadaw, the Northeastern Command stands out for its tradition.”
“It defeated the Kuomintang invasion from abroad. It repeatedly defeated invasions by the Communist Party of Burma. It is the military command that helped free the local national race from the oppression of warlords and opium kings,” he said.
One week after that declaration, the command headquarters was conquered. The MNDAA said in a statement that its troops “took complete control of the Northeastern Command at 12.20 pm on August 3, and its operation has achieved complete victory.”
Ye Myo Hein, a Visiting Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, said the fall of Northeastern Command represented more than the loss of a regional command for the Myanmar military. The defeat showed the Myanmar military’s combat power had weakened to the point that it could no longer resist the advance of revolutionary forces, he wrote on Facebook.
“Though the battle itself was crucial, [it showed] the institution of the military has weakened to the extent that it could not recover when it started to lose ground during the fighting.”
He added that the rout of Northeastern Command also dealt a severe blow to morale within the military while bolstering confidence among anti-regime forces.
“The defeat will have domino effects,” he predicted.
Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun acknowledged the fall of the military hub, saying the regime had “lost contact with officers at the headquarters on Saturday afternoon.”
In June 1970, the Myanmar Socialist Program Party led by dictator Gen. Ne Win formed a strategic command headquarters in Lashio to counter the threat of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), whose troops entered Kokang in 1967.
In 1971, Northeastern Command-led troops successfully repelled 40 days of “human-wave” attacks on Kunlong by the CPB, halting the offensive’s momentum and marking a historic turning point in the battle against the insurgency.
After the fighting subsided, the regime dissolved the strategic command headquarters and established nine regional commands: Northern Command based in Myitkyina, Northeastern Command in Lashio, Eastern Command in Taunggyi, Southeastern Command in Mawlamyine, Yangon Command in Mingalardon, Southwestern Command in Pathein, Western Command in Sittwe, Northwestern Command in Mandalay and Central Command in Taungoo.
Northeastern Command engaged in fierce fighting with the Shan State Army, ethnic Palaung groups, troops under drug lord Khun Sa, and Kachin Independence Army Brigade 4, active in northern Shan State until the collapse of the CPB in 1989.
The command assumed an even more important role protecting the Muse-Lashio route to China after border trade resumed following the CPB’s collapse. Senior officers at the command also started to get involved in local business.
In 2009, amid tensions over the military-drafted 2008 Constitution’s requirement for ethnic armed organizations to transform into border guard forces, the military attacked Kokang and expelled the MNDAA led by Peng Jiasheng. The MNDAA returned to Kokang in 2015, triggering further clashes.
Northern Shan State saw few clashes in the aftermath of the 2021 coup, until the Brotherhood Alliance including the MNDAA launched Operation 1027 in late October last year. The regime quickly lost Kunlong, Hseni and Namhkam townships near Lashio, before China brokered a ceasefire in mid-January.
The alliance resumed Operation 1027 in late June, making more gains culminating in the MNDAA seizing both Lashio and the Northeastern Command HQ it hosted.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has now assured his place in history as the first military commander-in-chief to have lost a regional command.
