Fighting with the junta’s forces in the Karen State town of Lay Kay Kaw is expected to intensify in the coming days, a resistance group has said.
A spokesperson for the Cobra Column said that the Myanmar military has been building up reinforcements in the area, including tanks, and that violence was expected to escalate after a clash on Thursday evening in the nearby village of Hpa Lu.
A soldier from the junta’s Light Infantry Division 44 was killed in the clash, which started at around 6:30pm, while three others were injured, he added.
“It can be seen from the fact that the enemy has been sending massive reinforcements that the battles will become more serious in the next few days,” said the spokesperson.
Junta soldiers stationed at a base in Swetaw Kone fired artillery shells at the site of Thursday’s clash from 7pm to 11pm, slightly injuring two Cobra Column fighters, he added.
Early this month resistance fighters killed dozens of junta troops during fighting in Lay Kay Kaw, which is in territory claimed by the Karen National Union (KNU). Cobra Column is fighting alongside the KNU’s armed wing in the town.
Almost 500 of the regime’s soldiers have been killed and another 300 injured in clashes across Karen since March, according to the KNU.
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There have also been a number of recent defections from the military in the area, including three lieutenant colonels who are the highest ranking soldiers to desert their posts since last year’s coup.
Fighting first broke out in Lay Kay Kaw, which was once seen as a haven for anti-coup activists, after junta soldiers arrested several people during raids there in December.
The town was built in 2015 after the KNU signed a ceasefire with the military, and was meant to be a monument to newfound peace in the region.
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As the junta has gagged the lawyers of the detained leaders in an attempt to restrict information from being shared about their court cases, Myanmar Now is unable to independently verify Maung Maung Swe’s accounts of the interactions.
However, this is not the first time Suu Kyi has addressed her supporters or the public since her arrest. In April last year, Suu Kyi delivered a message to the public through her legal team during a hearing in Naypyitaw, according to a source close to the court. She urged the people “to stay united,” said the source. She gave the rare statement to her lawyers during a session in a junta court specially designated to review charges brought against her by the military.
The source told Myanmar Now at that time that she urged the public “to stay united and hold discussions on different views. If they still aren’t able to open dialogues now, she said to wait patiently until it is possible to do so.”
Suu Kyi wanted people with different or contrasting opinions to get along with one another and believed “negotiations would be necessary in order to come to a common solution amongst the people,” the source explained.