Lies, damn lies, and Paletwa

Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing demonstrated his dishonesty again on Tuesday in a message to mark the 76th anniversary of Chin National Day, claiming his regime is building a port in Paletwa, a Chin town bordering Rakhine State.
In fact, Paletwa fell to the ethnic-Rakhine Arakan Army last month. The town is part of the India-funded Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, which aims to connect Kolkata with Rakhine’s capital of Sittwe by sea.
In Myanmar, the project will link Sittwe’s seaport to Paletwa via the Kaladan River before connecting to Mizoram state in northeast India by road.
Min Aung Hlaing also claimed that areas along the Kaladan River section of the project are being developed.
In reality, the AA has taken control of major towns on the river’s route including Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya and Myebon, while also seizing junta positions to the west in Maungdaw and Buthidaung. The armed group has also captured the central police station in Ponnagyun, which borders Sittwe near the mouth of the river.
Rather than undertaking development work in areas along the Kaladan River, the regime is struggling even to defend Rakhine State’s capital.
Turning to mercenaries

The regime delivered arms, cash and food to militias in more than 20 towns in Yangon, Bago and Tanintharyi regions and Shan and Mon states over three weeks from Jan. 30 to Feb. 20, in a bid to prop up its depleted army.
Militias in Hlegu, Taikkyi, Myeik, Lashio, Taunggyi, Lawksawk, Hopong, Naungtaya, Pinlaung, Kalaw and towns in eastern and western Bago Region were armed, while their counterparts in Bago, Kyauktaga, Kawa, Daik-U and Dawei were supplied with cash and food.
The scale of the junta’s military crisis became apparent last Saturday when it introduced conscription covering an estimated 14 million young people. It has also activated a law to call up retired and former military personnel. The regime has announced conscription will begin in April.
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