On Wednesday evening, Myanmar army reclaimed the Maw Khee base from which they had fled more than two weeks ago in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township when attacked by ethnic Karen forces, a spokesperson for the Karen National Union (KNU) said.
Since the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, had seized the base on March 21, the military had reportedly been attempting to regain control of the post, resulting in large numbers of casualties.
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KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee said that at least 20 junta soldiers were killed in Wednesday’s battle alone. He did not comment on whether the KNLA had also suffered casualties.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the number of deaths on either side.
It remains unclear whether the KNLA had occupied the Maw Khee base after forcing the Myanmar military out of the site.
The junta sent more than 200 troops towards Maw Khee from the nearby town of Waw Lay on Tuesday, with further reinforcements on standby, Karen State-based media outlet KIC reported, citing the KNLA.
The military also sent over 200 soldiers from Waw Lay on April 5 and more soldiers were sent to Waw Lay, which is a Karen township closest to Mawkhee, according to the KIC, a local news department, which cited the KNLA.
The KNLA seized a number of weapons and ammunition during the March raid on Maw Khee. Of the 28 junta soldiers from Infantry Battalion 32 and Light Infantry Battalion 555 who were stationed there, the KNLA initially reported that one was killed, one captured, and the rest had fled.
On March 22, the KNLA reportedly also captured LIB 555’s commander—whose rank could not be verified—as well as a corporal.
The military has released no information on the incident.
Waw Lay and Maw Khee are located in the KNLA’s Brigade 6 territory, known as Dooplaya District. It is also 36 miles south of Lay Kay Kaw town, which was repeatedly attacked by ground forces and junta airstrikes in December, displacing thousands of people.
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Casino controversy
More than 60 Karen civil society organisations, including the KWO, released a joint statement late last week calling for the resignation of all KNU central executive committee members with ties to so-called “new city projects,” including illegal casinos and other gambling businesses.
In response, the KNU released a statement on Sunday denying that it had issued any permits for illegal businesses in Karen (Kayin) State.
KNU congresses typically last about a month, and are attended by central executive committee members and representatives from each brigade.
Padoh Saw Liston, the district secretary for KNLA Brigade 6, said he didn’t expect the current congress to last any longer than usual, despite being the first to be conducted online—an innovation, he said, necessitated by the risk of airstrikes.
He added that the Karen public also hopes to see more “political integrity” in the group’s leadership.
“I think the public feels that the leadership’s behaviour should reflect the KNU’s political integrity, so I think there may be some changes. However, everything depends on the representatives’ skills,” he stated.
More than 50 representatives are slated to be elected as members of the KNU’s central executive committee during the congress. The elected representatives will then choose the group’s chair, vice-chair, and secretary general.
KNU territory is divided into seven districts, each one controlled by a different brigade of either the KNLA or the Karen National Defence Organisation, another armed wing under the KNU’s command.
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Another retired soldier who served in the army for 40 years told Myanmar Now that among these new recruits, the reasons for joining were often rooted in pragmatism over patriotism.
“No one has joined the army because they love the country,” he said.
Once provided with uniforms, weapons, and two weeks of combat training, family members of troops are often sent to reinforce weakened battalions and brigades nationwide, according to Cpt Zin Yaw, who left the Myanmar army after nearly 20 years to join the Civil Disobedience Movement.
“The new recruits are often underage and not in a good mental state,” he said, citing sources still in the military. “They were kept at the base just for show. Some were so unstable that they couldn’t be trusted enough to have their guns loaded with real bullets.”
He noted that this information came from an officer currently serving in the Southeastern Regional Command, active in Mon and Karen states, where intense fighting has taken place between the Myanmar army and resistance forces including the longstanding ethnic armed organisation the Karen National Union (KNU).
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Children among troops
A former child soldier forcibly recruited into the military while on a Buddhist pilgrimage in 2019 affirmed that the Myanmar army resorted to unorthodox measures to bolster its troop numbers well before the coup.
Hein Zaw Oo said he was 16 and had just visited the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Mon State when he was approached by a police officer he met on the train back to his native Yangon. The officer convinced him to enlist, and initially sent him to Infantry Battalion 30 in Bago Region’s Taungoo Township. He then attended six months of combat training in Thabeikkyin Township in Mandalay.
“There were many underage children among the troops,” he recalled. “Many of them were younger than me.”
Speaking to Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity, another army captain who served for 10 years before joining the CDM said that Hein Zaw Oo’s experience was not uncommon, and that railway stations had long been known military recruitment sites, particularly for minors.
“They target the boys who seem lost at the stations—naïve young boys are threatened and recruited into the army,” the captain said. “For example, they will accuse the boys of stealing, and after beating them, they will threaten them with prison if they don’t join [the army].”
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Officers were under pressure to find two new recruits each month in order to secure their own promotions, he explained. Prior to the coup, they could expect to spend up to 2m kyat (nearly US$1,000) in “fees” to take credit for bringing on a new soldier.
“Some bases sell their troops’ recruitment records to those officers. The military recruitment units also sell the names of the people they have recruited, and the officers [who want a promotion] will buy from them,” he explained.
After he completed his training, teenager Hein Zaw Oo became a member of Light Infantry Battalion 2 under Light Infantry Division 44, and was—perhaps ironically—stationed in the Kyaikhto, the same township as the holy site he visited before he was recruited.
He was then deployed to Rakhine State to fight against the Arakan Army in 2020, and transferred across the country to Karen State one year after the coup. Looking for an escape, he contacted the Cobra Column—a combined force made up of KNU soldiers and members of the anti-junta People’s Defence Force—as they advanced along the highway connecting Myawaddy with Waw Lay along the Thai border in May 2022, and defected to the resistance.
Upon his arrival in liberated territory, Hein Zaw Oo told Myanmar Now that the “propaganda” spread by the military about the anti-junta armed groups turned out to be false.
“The army says that deserters who join the CDM will be killed by [the resistance forces] after being fed for a day or two,” he explained, speculating that the regime is desperate not to lose more troops to the movement it is struggling to suppress.