Anti- coup weight state control of Myawaddy, as residents fear heat strikes
TAK- A group of people waited at a boundary crossing on Friday morning to flee Myanmar after the carefully important town of Myawaddy near Thailand fell to the growing strength of anti-junta resistance. Some of the travelers were concerned about air strikes.
According to experts, the town’s closure deprives the dictatorship of crucial profits from borders business while strengthening insurgent groups like the Karen National Union (KNU), which led the assault on Myawaddy.
Moe Moe Thet San, a native of Myawaddy who immigrated to Thailand with her brother, who is about five years old, remarked,” I am frightened of air attacks.”
The 39-year-old family, one of those gathered at the one fully functional border crossing at Mae Sot, claimed the noise of bombs drove them to keep house in fear for their security.” They caused very loud noises that shook my house.
” That’s why I escaped below. They ca n’t bomb Thailand”, she added.
After Myanmar’s troubled coup lost still more territory in the most recent round of fighting, Foreign Affairs Minister Parnpree Bahiddha- Nukara will travel to Mae Sot, just across the Moei River from Myawaddy, on Friday to examine things.
According to Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Junta, some of its troops had surrendered because their families were present and negotiations with Thailand were raging for their return were in progress.
He did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Myanmar has experienced unrest since 2021, when the powerful military ousted an elected civilian government, causing widespread protests it aimed to overthrow with brutal force.
A nationwide armed resistance movement that is now increasingly working in concert with well-established ethnic rebel groups to challenge the military in Southeast Asia has emerged as a result of simmering enrage against the junta.
After a days-long assault by the anti-junta resistance, which declared it had won control of the crucial border town of Myawaddy, 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge to Thailand on Thursday. A military personnel stands guard. ( Photo: Reuters )
After the KNU claimed it had taken control of Myawaddy, about 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew on Thursday to a bridge connecting Mae Sot.
But the Myanmar military may still seek to mount a counter- attack, supported by its air force, to regain the town, said Dulyapak Preecharush, an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.
There is therefore a concern about potential more intense fighting in the upcoming days, he told Reuters.
Numbers double
As fighting in Myanmar intensified, the numbers crossing to Mae Sot from Myawaddy doubled this week to about 4, 000 a day.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the fighting in Myanmar should not spill into Thailand’s airspace.
Mr. Srettha claimed in an interview with Reuters last week that the Myanmar junta was “losing strength” as he presses to start discussions with the government.  ,  ,  ,
Thailand, which says it is keeping neutral in the Myanmar conflict and can accept up to 100, 000 people displaced by it, has pursued engagement, including aid deliveries, with its neighbour since Mr Srettha came to power last August.
The Arakan Army rebel group’s warning that it would retake an offensive in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine could cause the junta to find itself in jeopardy even further.
Residents of Sittwe and Kyauk Phyu, Rakhine cities, should relocate, according to Arakan Army chief Twan Mrat Naing, in a statement.
The Arakan Army, one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed forces, participated in Operation 1027, a major assault by three rebel groups that took significant territory from the junta in October.