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Category: ASEAN

Myanmar junta soldiers surrender in ethnic army’s first Tanintharyi win

Editor03 mins

Nearly 50 junta soldiers surrendered to an ethnic armed group in southern Myanmar, its political wing announced on Tuesday The Karen National Union’s armed branch, the Karen National Liberation Army, intercepted junta troops in Tanintharyi region’s Myeik township.  Commander Lieutenant Colonel Aung Hein, leading the junta’s Myeik-based Infantry Battalion 103, surrendered to the Karen army’s Brigade 4, according to a statement from the Karen National Union. The Karen National Liberation Army intercepted 48 troops on their way back to regroup in Htee Hta Byu Har junta camp on Monday, while six junta soldiers were killed in the attack. The group began fighting for territory in Tanintharyi in November 2022. This victory marks a first for the Karen National Liberation Army’s successes in the region, a spokesman for KNLA allies the Myeik District Revolutionary Force told RFA. “We can say that this surrender was the very first of its kind in Tanintharyi region,” he told RFA, declining to be named for security reasons. “I heard that they surrendered yesterday.” The troops that surrendered used to conduct military operations in Tanintharyi and Palaw townships, he said, adding that joint Karen National Union and People’s Defense Forces are conducting operations against the army in Dawei and Palaw township. RFA contacted Tanintharyi region’s junta spokesperson Thet Naing for a comment on the incident, but he did not respond by the time of publication.  Nearly 70 light and heavy weapons were seized and the 48 junta soldiers who surrendered are being held in accordance with international law, the Karen National Union’s statement said. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

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Water festival attacks kill 3 during Myanmar coup leader’s holiday

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Missile attacks on two universities in a holiday town in Myanmar killed three and injured eight, residents told Radio Free Asia on Monday.  During coup leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s Thingyn – or water festival – visit to Mandalay division’s Pyinoolwin city on Sunday, an unknown group fired more than 15 missiles at two military universities. The blasts, which hit the Defense Services Academy and Defense Services Technology Academy, also damaged a department of a nearby hospital and Aung Myay Zaya monastery.  The missiles injured five civilians when they landed on Pyinoolwin Hospital’s orthopedics department, said one Pyinoolwin resident, declining to be named for security reasons.  “The two monks who died were people who wore robes during the Thingyn period. They died when the explosion happened near them,” he said, describing civilians who temporarily become monks to observe Myanmar’s new year water festival. “The last man who died on the spot was in Ward No. 8. Another three people were injured in this neighborhood alone.” Following the attack, tourists who came for the holiday and some permanent residents fled the city, he added.  From 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday evening, about 40 shots and explosions could be heard, said one Pyinoolwin resident who was near the site of the attack.  “After the sound of the missiles, Defense Services Academy and Defense Services Technology Academy troops cut the power. The military and social aid vehicles were busy,” he said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. “I knew they fell in the area of the Defense Services Academy.” Staff at Pyinoolwin Hospital are preparing to move patients to Mandalay Hospital, while junta soldiers are conducting security checks around the city, residents said.  No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet, but residents told RFA that they were likely carried out from a hill behind the university campuses.  The junta has not issued any statements about the attacks. RFA called Mandalay division’s junta spokesperson Thein Htay for more information on the attacks, but he did not respond.   Residents told RFA they believe the attack was carried out because of Min Aung Hlaing’s visit. On Sunday, a bomb exploded near a pavilion in Mandalay city, injuring 12 people.  Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Viral video highlights targeting of Hmong women to marry Chinese men

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The man behind the phone chuckles as he calls out in the Hmong language to villagers sitting around a raised wooden home in rural Laos. A young man in a yellow hooded sweatshirt offers a slightly embarrassed smile, while other men gathered around a motorbike appear to pay him no mind. The camera zooms in on two young women who look shocked or turn away, as others laugh, before it settles on a girl barely in her teens, sitting atop a bike between two other children. This 30-second video, shot in an undisclosed location in Laos, went viral late last month after it was posted to Facebook, along with dialogue warning of ethnic Hmong middlemen working as interpreters for Chinese nationals seeking Hmong women and girls as wives. While the offer of marriage can be a financial leg up for largely poor Hmong villagers in rural Laos, many women who accept end up victims of human trafficking, according to a Lao official, who is calling on authorities to take action against the middlemen.  Some of the women end up as forced laborers and sometimes face physical punishment, the official said. “In the video, the middleman goes to a village and says that there are some Chinese men looking for Lao Hmong girls and women to be their wives,” a speaker of the Hmong language told Radio Free Asia.  “The video doesn’t mention the province, district, or village,” he said. “It’s only clear that Chinese men are looking for Lao Hmong wives.” A Lao Hmong middleman assists Chinese middlemen looking for Lao Hmong girls and women to marry Chinese men, March 24, 2024 in Laos. (Citizen journalist) The women and girls typically live in remote hill areas and are usually uneducated, according to an official from the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union, the ruling party’s youth wing. “As I observe, some of the men cannot marry Chinese women because they are poor,” the youth official said. “But when they come to Laos, they’re in a better position in terms of wealth.” Loopholes in Laos’ laws The Chinese men offer the parents large amounts of money or promise to build a modern cement house, he said.  And they mostly target the Lao women in their early 20s, with fair skin and a small body, a source in Vientiane province’s Thoulakhom district told RFA. The influx of Chinese people into Laos in the last few years has presented new challenges to the Lao government’s anti-human trafficking efforts, according to several government officials. Many of the Chinese men obtain all of the required Lao government documents before marrying Hmong women, one Vientiane-based official told RFA. That can make it more difficult for provincial authorities to gauge whether the women will face an abusive situation once they move to China, the official said. “There are some loopholes in Lao regulations and laws for the Chinese men to take advantage to bring Lao girls and women to China,” the official said. “We only know their whereabouts once they face problems and are in a situation where they need help. But we can’t stop them from going to China with their new husbands.” It was unclear how many Hmong women have moved to China to marry Chinese men in recent years. But Lao government officials and one person who works for an NGO said the practice has become commonplace in the country’s north, particularly in Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces. “I just saw this happen earlier this year,” a resident of Xayabury province’s Hongsa district told RFA. “A middleman who works for Chinese men came here to negotiate with parents of Hmong women. When the parents said yes, he did all the paperwork according to regulations and laws on marriage.” In every instance, the Hmong women and the Chinese men didn’t meet each other until after the paperwork was completed, he said. Because of that, the village doesn’t hold an engagement ceremony, like with other marriages. Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.

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Thailand ready for any scenario on Myanmar border, foreign minister says

Editor04 mins

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has discouraged Myanmar’s junta from further violence In the border region after the army lost a major border town, the Thai foreign minister said Friday. Allied rebel forces, including the Karen National Union, captured a final junta battalion in Kayin state’s Myawaddy on Thursday morning, effectively gaining control of the city and causing thousands to flee into the border region.  “We have sent a message to the [State Administration Council], as a matter of fact, that we do not want to see violence there,” Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said at a press conference in Mae Sot on Friday afternoon. “We are also talking to ASEAN by way of statement, as well, but certainly to get everyone back on track to the five-point consensus,” he said, referring to the 2021 plan which included a call for a ceasefire and dialogue between all parties in Myanmar. The allied rebel’s capture has caused neighboring Thailand’s armed forces to deploy soldiers alongside Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridges, which regulate both people and goods and connect Myanmar’s Myawaddy to Thailand’s Mae Sot. Thailand is prepared to accommodate four different affected groups, the foreign minister said.  This includes junta soldiers, 200 of which could be seen on Thursday and Friday, sheltering in northern Myawaddy near Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2. “At this point, there is no indication yet that they want to cross over,” Parnpree said. “For Thailand, we have no issue addressing any type of entry into the country on a strictly humanitarian basis.” Thailand allowed 600 junta personnel, including soldiers and their families, to be sent back to Myanmar through Mae Sot by plane on Sunday. In the event further conflict erupts, Thai nationals living near the border would be given shelter and access to necessities, while preparations have been made and assistance provided to Myanmar nationals to escape to safety, he continued.  According to the Karen Department for Health and Welfare, fighting in Myawaddy district has displaced 2,000 new people into Thailand’s Tak border province. These people are in need of food, shelter and medicine, a spokesperson said. About 30 people have been injured, but the number of casualties is still unknown. Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

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Biden: US will defend Philippines if vessels are attacked

Editor010 mins

U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that American military support for the Philippines was “ironclad,” and any attacks against its vessels in the South China Sea would invoke a 1951 treaty that compels each country to come to the other’s aid in the event of a conflict. The comments came ahead of an unprecedented summit between Biden and his Japanese and Philippine counterparts at the White House. A senior U.S. official said the talks were arranged because of the recent flare-up in tensions between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea. “I want to be clear, the United States’ defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” Biden said at the opening of the meeting. “Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty.” The U.S. has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines and a military alliance with Japan, both of which were inked in 1951. Chinese coast guard vessels fire water cannons towards a Philippine resupply vessel, the Unaizah, on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal) in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (Adrian Portugal/Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that increased trilateral cooperation between the Pacific nations was borne from their shared democratic values and evidenced by joint military drills in the South China Sea last weekend. “It is a partnership born not out of convenience nor of expediency,” Marcos said, “but as a natural progression of a deepening cooperation amongst our three countries, linked by a profound respect for democracy, good governance and the rule of law.” Water cannon attacks Chinese coast guard vessels have in recent weeks fired water cannons at Philippine boats attempting to supply a deliberately sunken warship that serves as a Philippine naval outpost at the Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal), with Beijing also warning Manila against trying to access it. The shoal lies in South China Sea waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila holds sovereign rights. But Beijing claims most of the sea as its historic territory and says Manila must ask permission from Chinese authorities to access the area. People protest against the Marcos administration’s 2023 decision to grant the United States greater access to military bases in the Philippines, as they demonstrate in a park near the White House in Washington, where the leaders of the U.S., Philippines, and Japan were holding a summit, April 11, 2024. (BenarNews) Earlier on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning accused Manila of “violating China’s sovereignty” for decades due to the half-sunken BRP Sierra Madre, which was grounded at the shoal in 1999 to maintain Manila’s sovereignty but now needs repairs. Speaking at a daily press briefing, Mao said Chinese authorities were “willing to allow” Philippine vessels to freely access the increasingly dilapidated outpost – but only to “tow” it away, and not repair it.  She said Manila needed to inform Beijing of any such plans before accessing the area, and then “China will monitor the whole process.” “If the Philippines sends a large amount of construction materials to the warship and attempts to build fixed facilities and a permanent outpost, China will not accept it and will resolutely stop it in accordance with law and regulations to uphold China’s sovereignty,” Mao said. She added that China’s recent “activities” in the South China Sea, such as the water-cannoning of Philippine vessels, “are in full compliance with international law” and “there’s nothing wrong about them.” ‘Crystal clear’ A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity prior to the summit, told reporters that Biden had been “crystal clear” about American military support for Manila, and said the flare-ups with China in the South China Sea were an impetus for Thursday’s summit. USS Mobile, JS Akebono, HMAS Warramunga, BRP Antonio Luna and BRP Valentine Diaz sail in formation during a multilateral maritime cooperative exercise between Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, April 7, 2024. (POIS Leo Baumgartner/Royal Australian Navy) “It is one of the reasons for the meeting because we are very concerned about what we’ve been seeing,” the official said. “He has repeated many times that the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the South China Sea, including Philippine vessels that may be underway there, including its coast guard vessels,” the official said. Another U.S. official added that Philippine and Japanese coast guard officers would be welcomed aboard U.S. Coast Guard ships during a maritime exercise later this year “to further train and synchronize our work together” in case of a future attack that sparks a conflict. Philippine activists protesting outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila on April 11, 2024, warned that a Washington summit between the leaders of the Philippines, United States and Japan could provoke an angry response from China over the South China Sea and threaten regional stability. (Gerard Carreon/BenarNews) The two officials also said the United States would help fund a major infrastructure project in the Philippines known as the Luzon corridor, as part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which is the U.S. answer to China’s high-spending Belt and Road Initiative.  The Luzon corridor, they said, would help connect Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas in the Philippines, with investments in infrastructure “including ports, rail, clean energy, semiconductor supply chains and other forms of connectivity in the Philippines.” “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Marcos,” one of the officials said, “ready to support and work with the Philippines at every turn.” U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit of the three nations’ leaders at the White House, in Washington, April 11, 2024. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) In his final remarks before talks opened behind closed-doors Thursday, Biden said the newfound cooperation between the United States, Japan and the Philippines would be a boon…

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Van Thinh Phat chairwoman sentenced to death in Vietnam’s biggest fraud trial

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Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of Vietnamese developer Van Thinh Phat, has been sentenced to death for masterminding a multi-billion-dollar fraud, state-controlled media reported Thursday. Judges at Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Court said she was guilty of bribery, embezzlement and violating banking regulations. Lan owned a 91.5% stake in Saigon Commercial Bank and, over the course of 10 years, ordered bank officials to approve more than 2,500 loans to shell companies she controlled, causing the bank to lose the equivalent of US$27 billion. Lan ordered subordinates to bribe auditors at the State Bank of Vietnam to cover her tracks. Head banking inspector Do Thi Nhan received $5.2 million in bribes, while deputy chief inspector Nguyen Van Hung received $300,000, state media said. A family member told Reuters Lan planned to appeal the verdict. Edited by Elaine Chan.

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Philippines’ Marcos denies ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Beijing over South China Sea

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday denied the existence of a “gentleman’s agreement” between his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, and China that Manila would not make repairs to a rusting military outpost in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. Duterte’s former spokesman, Harry Roque, has said the previous Philippine government entered into a deal with Beijing to keep the “status quo” in the waterway, which has become the scene of increasingly tense confrontations between the two nations. As part of the deal, Duterte allegedly agreed the Philippines would not send construction materials to repair the BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated World War II-era naval ship that was deliberately run aground on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. “We don’t know anything about it,” Marcos told reporters before leaving for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington “There is no documentation, no record. We were not briefed [about it] when I came into office, no one told us that there was that agreement.” Marcos said his staff were demanding information from ex-Duterte officials, but “we still haven’t got a straight answer.” “I am horrified by the idea that we have compromised through a secret agreement, the territory, sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Philippines,” Marcos said. Since taking office in June 2022, Marcos has reversed Duterte’s pro-China policies, realigning with the United States and granting American troops greater access to Philippine bases.  Duterte has not directly commented on the supposed deal, but the Chinese embassy in Manila has alluded to it on a number of occasions after Chinese vessels have been accused of harassing Filipino supply boats heading to the Sierra Madre.  China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, while disregarding overlapping claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Manila “has been going back on its words and provoking China” over Second Thomas Shoal, without directly mentioning any agreement. Roque has not replied to requests for comment made by RFA affiliate BenarNews, but he has been quoted widely in local media saying he stands by his earlier statement. “The gentleman’s agreement is to respect the status quo on the entire West Philippine Sea dispute,” he said, referring to the portion of the South China Sea within Manila’s exclusive economic zone. As Marcos left on Wednesday afternoon for Washington, the Philippine military reported that some 48 Chinese vessels – mostly from its maritime militia – were being monitored near another disputed outcrop, Scarborough Shoal, and three Philippine-occupied features in the South China Sea. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

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Rebels claim 2 junta bases in central Myanmar, taking 120 surrenderers

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Over 100 junta troops surrendered after guerilla-style militias captured two of their camps in central Myanmar, a militia member told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. The camps are located between two townships in Sagaing region, where anti-junta sentiment is high and indiscriminate attacks by the Myanmar military have been frequent since the army seized power in 2021.  Seven combined anti-junta armed groups, including Paungbyin People’s Defense Force and Homalin People’s Defense Force, carried out the most recent capture on Sunday. A member of the militia said the People’s Defense Forces now control the Chindwin river between two townships, strategic land that the junta used to target villages. The river was previously used by junta forces to transport supplies and fuel further attacks on villages situated nearby. “These camps and battalions are connected to Homalin and Paungbyin [townships]. Now, we can completely control the waters of the Chindwin river,” he told RFA, declining to be named for security reasons. “From that place, the military could attack villages in Paungbyin. But that area is now in our hands.” Some junta soldiers were trapped and later rescued by a Mi-17 helicopter from the junta air force base in Homalin, he added. The People’s Defense Force seized Light Infantry Battalions 396 and 370, as well as taking 120 surrenderers prisoner out of the 300 junta troops present. Troops stationed across Sagaing have frequently conducted attacks across the region and have been accused of gruesome assaults and baseless arrests of civilians, including women and children, people with disabilities and the elderly. Sagaing was also cited as the division with the highest rate of body-burning, a recurrent tactic by junta troops. RFA contacted Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson Nyunt Win Aung regarding the bases’ capture, but he did not respond.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Taejun Kang. 

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8 Lao women arrested in Thailand for prostitution

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Authorities in Thailand have arrested eight Lao women, seven of whom entered the country illegally to work as prostitutes, and one who worked as their madam, Radio Free Asia has learned. According to the Anti-Trafficking in Person Unit of the Thai Department of Special Investigation, the seven women were aged 21 to 36, and they were arrested at a karaoke bar in Bang Pakong district in the southern province of  Chachoengsao. The eighth woman is the wife of the bar’s owner.  A police officer in Bang Pakong district confirmed Monday that the seven women, who were arrested on April 4, are still in custody and are awaiting trial and will be deported to Laos later. The sex trade is technically illegal in Thailand, but laws against it are rarely enforced. Authorities do, however, more strictly enforce immigration laws. “Usually, people from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are allowed to work in Thailand in only certain types of work like construction, but not in entertainment venues or karaoke bars,” Col. Pattanapong Sripinproh of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit told RFA Lao.  “They are not allowed to work as bar girls or drink girls,” he said. “If they do, they’ll be arrested.” Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau raid a karaoke shop April 4, 2024 in Bang Pakong district, Thailand. (Manager Online) Sripinproh explained that police were able to catch the eight women by going undercover and posing as johns. “One of our police officers disguised as a customer at the karaoke bar and agreed to pay 2,000 baht ($54) for sex with one of the women,” he said, explaining that the bar owner and a hotel get their cut of the money and the woman would get about 1,300 baht ($36). Following this lead, the police officers inspected the bar and found that seven women were working illegally. “Based on the law on foreign workers …  the violators will be fined up to 10,000 baht (US$272) and/or jailed for two months,” he said, but acknowledged that in most cases there is no fine or jail time. Instead the women are usually deported and blacklisted for two years. He also said that if the husband and wife were found guilty of human trafficking they could face up to 20 years in prison. “But in these cases we found out that those seven women are older than 20 and none of them were forced to prostitution,” said Sripinproh. “So, the husband and wife won’t be charged with human trafficking. But they will be charged with doing illegal business by providing sexual services.” RFA reported in March that four Lao women were arrested in Ban Bueng district in nearby Chonburi province for entering the country illegally and working as prostitutes. They told Thai police that they entered Thailand as tourists, rented rooms in a hotel and then sold sex. Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Eugene Whong.

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Rebels push over 600 junta personnel out of Myanmar-Thailand border town

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Myanmar junta forces, pushed out by rebel groups at the border township of Myawaddy, have requested to be evacuated with their family members through a Thai border town, Thailand’s foreign ministry said on Monday.  “After receiving the said request, and upon considering the urgency of the situation and the possibility of an evacuation of Myanmar personnel and their families to safe areas, a decision was made at the government level to approve the request from Myanmar on humanitarian grounds,” said the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.  Around 617 personnel have requested evacuation, including 410 soldiers and 207 family members, according to Thai media.  Allied rebel armed groups in Kayin state, which border’s Thailand Tak province, have suspended some of the junta’s local government offices in the major trade hub township of Myawaddy since Saturday, said a local businessman. “At Friendship Bridge No. 1 also, immigration is issuing papers for people to cross [over the border], working as usual,” he said, declining to be named for security reasons. “The usual police, Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs and Bureau of Special Investigation were not seen at Friendship Bridge No. 1.” Friendship Bridge No. 1 connects the Thai city of Mae Sot with Myanmar’s Myawaddy and has been run by Myanmar’s junta since it reopened in 2023 after a three-year hiatus.  The Karen Nation Union, working with guerilla armies, or the People’s Defense Forces, and the Border Guard Forces on Saturday’s maneuver, has not issued any updates about their hold on Myawaddy since the Thai ministry’s announcement.  The group announced on Saturday it captured Thin Gan Nyi Naung village in Myawaddy district, still 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the border.  In 2023, it seized a mountain overlooking Myawaddy, and took control of the city’s Asian Highway in December.  While these liminal successes at the border could mark significant economic and security changes, there are other strategic trade routes and military positions the junta still has a tight grasp on, said Dulyapak Preecharush, an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Thailand’s Thammasat University. “Now, the opposition groups have more power than the [State Authority Council] in this area and will become the powerful stakeholder there,” he said. “However, despite the Tatmadaw’s [the military of Myanmar’s] failure in defending the city [Myawaddy], other military camps in Kayin state and its headquarter of Southeastern Regional Command in Mawlamyine have not been captured.” Non-political aid According to the Thai foreign ministry, one flight arrived from Myanmar at Mae Sot’s airport on Sunday. The ministry did not elaborate if all officials boarded the flight or were evacuated, but said the junta has since requested that remaining flights for Monday and Tuesday be canceled.  A meeting will be held at the Government House on Tuesday to “assess the situation” and “determine a course of action for Thailand,” the statement continued.  Thailand’s Ratchamanu task force, based in the border province of Tak, has stressed the country’s firm neutral stance among all warring factions in Myanmar. “In line with humanitarian principle, Thailand would not take side with Myanmar troops nor ethnic forces but we give assistance where applicable,” Task Force Commander Col. Nattakorn Reuntib told Radio Free Asia. Soldiers, regardless of their political association, would be disarmed, given basic assistance and repatriated, he added. Thailand’s foreign ministry has not responded to RFA’s inquiries as of this writing.  This development – the ethnic armies having more control over the border – could prompt Thailand’s officials to re-examine their operations in Mae Sot, said political analyst Panitan Wattanayagorn. “Who controls the bridge must control immigration,” he said, adding that new groups may be more flexible on the border than the junta was. “The Thai officers must renegotiate with the new groups to make sure there is no real surge or increase in terms of crossing borders illegally.” Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.

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