Western governments have been remiss in offering assistance to defectors and deserters of Myanmar’s security forces, despite the shadow government’s repeated requests for help, according to National Unity Government (NUG) sources who spoke with Asia Times.
Thousands of military and police personnel have already crossed over into areas or defense units controlled by anti-junta forces, or have been spirited out of the country into neighboring Thailand and India for their own safety, the same sources say.
The NUG says that any support that helps to boost defection rates from the military junta to pro-democracy opposition would be the quickest and least lethal means of ending Myanmar’s ongoing crisis – a perhaps quixotic view considering the military junta’s unflinching brutality in prosecuting its post-coup war.
So far, however, only Australia has openly admitted to granting asylum to a handful of security force defectors, a policy that analysts reckon has helped the revolutionary movement and if expanded could be key to weakening the junta’s grip. The NUG claims anti-military forces now control a greater geographical area of the country than the junta.
The NUG has explicitly appealed for assistance from the US and EU governments for more than a year, a NUG official with knowledge of the defection program told Asia Times.
“We asked [foreign governments], if you can’t assist us with arms, please accept defectors because it’s also supporting the revolution in another way,” Zin Mar Aung, the NUG’s foreign minister, told The Irrawaddy newspaper earlier this year. “Luckily this was accepted by Australia. And there are also some countries which are welcoming defectors, but not publicly.”
Asia Times has not been able to confirm which other countries Zin Mar Aung referenced, though several European countries may be involved. The NUG is averse to providing such information in case it jeopardizes that support.
Last month, the Joe Biden administration said it would expand and extend temporary legal status for several thousand people from Myanmar. Temporary Protected Status was extended for another 18 months for an estimated 970 people until May 2024, the Associated Press reported.
It also created space for an additional 2,290 people to live and work until that date if they were in the United States before last month. The US government, however, doesn’t reveal whether and if so how many of these people are defectors from Myanmar’s security services.
A NUG official who requested anonymity says that hundreds or even thousands of more security personnel would defect or desert their positions if they believed their safety would be guaranteed in a foreign country, particularly a Western state, and that this would be the most impactful way of draining resources from the military junta.
“We have a lot of defectors who are waiting for us to give the green light, to guarantee them resettlement abroad and financial support,” the official told Asia Times. “If we can give the green light, thousands more will defect,” the NUG source claimed.
More than 3,000 security personnel have defected from the military since the February 2021 coup, according to People’s Embrace, an online group formed by defectors.
However, other analysts told Asia Times that perhaps more than 10,000 police, soldiers and civil servants have already defected or deserted the junta’s ranks, although they say the actual number could be much higher as there’s little documentation or registration because of security risks.
“Soldiers and their families are also victims of the oppressive system,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a prominent activist and the daughter of an army officer.
“I have witnessed tremendous violations inside the military. When we talk about human rights, it’s for all of us, including ground soldiers and their families [who have been] brainwashed to serve generals and dictators,” she added. “We need to save them, too.”
Defectors play key roles in supporting the anti-junta movement, leaking sensitive information and depleting the junta’s fighting forces. Last month, a helicopter pilot who defected from the military revealed information about how junta pilots attacked a village school in Sagaing Region earlier that month, killing at least 11 children.
Many defectors have also taken up arms with civilian militias, people’s defense forces (PDFs) or the country’s numerous ethnic armed groups, some of which are in open conflict with the junta. Last month, the Irrawaddy reported on at least 100 military personnel who defected to the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed organization now fighting against the junta’s forces in Rakhine state.
“If we could support and give the soldiers alternatives and another life possible out of the military, they will definitely walk out and defy the orders,” said Yi.
Western and Southeast Asian governments should support defections and advocacy programs “if they want to support non-violent movements” and if they favor less violent ways of unseating the junta and bringing democracy back to Myanmar, she added.
Support for defectors would be one of the most impactful ways for foreign governments to assist the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, especially since the democratic West is not yet ready to formally recognize the NUG as Myanmar’s legitimate government, nor open up much-needed financial channels to the country’s revolutionary movement
Those latter two options are fraught with legal and diplomatic questions. Many countries have a policy of only recognizing other states, not the governments, while few foreign capitals want to be seen as contributing towards even more violence in Myanmar, which has been locked in ethnic civil wars for decades.
But there would be fewer legal or diplomatic obstacles if Western governments were to accept defectors from the military and police as political refugees, analysts say.
It is not known how many defectors or deserters the Australian government has welcomed, but in March, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that 513 people from Myanmar were provided onshore protection visas between February 1, 2021, and January 31, 2022, although not all of those were likely to have been defectors.
Nonetheless, when reports of Australia’s support circulated in international media earlier this year, as it was previously kept quiet by Canberra, analysts and observers believe it had an impact on morale within the junta’s forces. Around that time, the junta reportedly tightened restrictions on military personnel’s freedom of movement and curtailed their access to smartphones.
In principle, some Western politicians support helping Myanmar’s military defectors, although this isn’t an issue that most national governments have discussed openly.
“The NUG and Myanmar opposition, in general, have done a commendable job in welcoming defectors from the ranks of the Myanmar military and police and providing them with financial and other types of support,” Heidi Hautala, a European Parliament vice-president, told Asia Times.
“For the NUG to continue this crucial work, Western governments need to ensure adequate support,” she added.
In some cases, seeking asylum in a neighboring country or further abroad “might be their best option,” said Hautala, adding that “asylum applications from the defectors should always be determined individually and in accordance with established international law.”
The US State Department did not respond to questions, but Asia Times understands that the issue of defectors has been raised on several occasions in conversations between the US government and NUG officials.
“Of course, the United States should increase its quota, as we have condemned the coup and the junta’s administration,” said Zachary Abuza, professor of Southeast Asian studies at the Washington-based National War College.
“Overall our refugee numbers still have not recovered from the [former president Donald Trump] administration. And sadly, there is a disconnect between our rhetoric and our policies on Myanmar,” he added.
One NUG official noted certain Western hypocrisy. “The European Union supported the peace process in the past but that has failed,” the official said, referring to the estimated $700 million worth of aid the EU pledged to give Myanmar between 2014 and 2020 for “democratization” efforts.
“They supported the police but the police are now killing civilians,” the official added. “So, right now [Europeans] have to decide to do the right thing, which can mean providing us, through the NUG and [Civil Disobedience Movement], financial assistance to the defectors and accept them as refugees.”
However, there are major problems for such a program, not least documentation. Many of the military defectors are spirited over the Thai border for their safety, but they usually leave without proper identification papers and thus enter Thailand illegally. This creates problems if they want to register as political refugees in Western countries.
Another obstacle, analysts say, is consideration of what that defector had done within the police or military before they fled. Most governments will not welcome an ex-officer who is credibly believed to have previously engaged in abuses like torture, attacks on civilians or other abusive behaviors.
Some analysts point out that even if Western governments wanted to do more, they are hobbled by the policies of neighboring Asian countries where most defectors first flee.
“Defectors run the gauntlet to escape Myanmar, and now they are expected to keep running because of these front-line states’ failures to offer basic refugee protection required by international human rights law,” says Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. “It’s an outrageous and unacceptable situation that must be fixed,” he said.
Thailand does not currently allow the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, to conduct refugee interviews for people from Myanmar, according to Robertson. “For some unknown reason, [Thailand] is now actively blocking the departure of Burmese to third countries, even if that destination country has agreed to accept them,” he stated
The UNHCR in India, meanwhile, says that people can only apply for status in person at their offices, which are thousands of kilometers away from the India-Myanmar border where most defectors are living, Robertson explained.
Even if defectors could make it to Malaysia, which has been the most supportive of the anti-junta movement among Southeast Asian countries, they risk being forcibly returned back to Myanmar.
“[Malaysia’s] immigration officers are conducting sweeps to arrest Burmese, and shockingly, they have forcibly returned asylum seekers and refugees, including defectors, back into the hands of the Myanmar junta,” said HRW’s Robertson.
On October 19, Reuters reported that Malaysia had deported 150 Myanmar nationals this month, including former navy officers seeking asylum.
That surprised many as Malaysia’s foreign minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, and its government has been the loudest voices within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) calling for more dialogue with the NUG and tougher punishment of the junta – all in the reputed name of defending democracy and pursuing peace in Myanmar.
At the same time, “Malaysian immigration [authorities] are shamefully doing the exact opposite by delivering people to face persecution and imprisonment in the junta’s interrogation centers and prisons,” Robertson added.
That doesn’t mean, however, Western governments cannot help in other ways. NUG officials who spoke to Asia Times repeatedly stressed that money is key.
With funds mainly raised through donations from abroad or via money-raising schemes at home, increasingly difficult as the junta targets such initiatives, the revolutionary movement often has to pay for defectors and their families to relocate within Myanmar or abroad.
In April, the shadow government increased its financial incentives for military personnel to defect. As well as raising its offers for service people to leave the military or police, it also said it would pay $500,000 to anyone who defects with a military airplane or navy vessel, and $100,000 to those who leave with a tank or armored personnel carrier. The NUG said it would pay $300,000 to anyone who sabotages a jet fighter, military helicopter or warship.
The NUG has admitted that its limited budget means it is unable to offer monetary incentives for all army defections.
A NUG official told Asia Times that foreign governments could support defections by making it easier for the NUG and other revolutionary bodies to access money donated from abroad or, more ideally, for foreign governments to provide funds directly to the NUG itself.
Follow David Hutt on Twitter at @davidhuttjourno