“ANOTHER WAY TO FIGHT”
At a camp at a hidden location, trainees scrambled over an obstacle course and waded single file through a river, AK-47 and M-22 rifles at the ready, listening for the sounds of an imaginary enemy.
Mai Naing Aung Kyar, 24, joined the TNLA after the coup to “revolt” against the junta.
“We can’t protest in the cities but I thought that joining TNLA is another way to fight,” he told AFP during a break from leopard-crawling through the dust and snapping to attention on parade.
In addition to local Ta’ang youths, the TNLA has given “military training” to PDFs from outside its territory, said Tar Bhon Kyaw, and has also provided them with “connections” to facilitate the buying of weapons.
He did not give further details, citing security reasons.
Analysts say that ethnic rebel groups along the borders with China, Thailand and India have trained and armed thousands of PDF fighters and seconded officers to lead inexperienced fighters in battles with junta troops.
PDF groups have surprised the military with their effectiveness, analysts say, and have dragged the military into a bloody quagmire.
In February, the junta admitted that it did not “fully control” more than a third of the country’s townships.