BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar's military government has admitted it has withdrawn its forces from a key city on the northeastern border with China after it was taken over by an alliance of ethnic armed groups it has been fighting for months.
The Three Brothers alliance took control of Laukkaing late Thursday after Myanmar forces laid down their weapons and were allowed to withdraw, both sides said Saturday.
Photos and videos on social media showed a large amount of weapons that the alliance had allegedly captured.
Laukkaing is the capital of the Kokang Self-Administrative Region, which is geographically part of northern Shan State in Myanmar.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance consists of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army. The MNDAA is a military force of the Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese.
The capture of the city was a main goal of the Alliance offensive launched on October 27th.
Myanmar government spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told Popular News Journal, a pro-army website, on Saturday that the military and its local commanders had relinquished control of Laukkaing after considering many aspects, including the security of the people Family members of the soldiers stationed there.
He said the military also took into account Myanmar's relations with China, which lies just across the border from Laukkaing. China, which has good relations with both the military and the ethnic alliance, is seeking an end to the fighting.
Beijing protested after artillery shells hit its territory on Wednesday, injuring five people. Zaw Min Tun said the alliance fired the shells and tried to blame the military to damage its relations with China.
A statement released by the alliance on social media late Friday said the entire Kokang region had become a “military council-free area.”
It said 2,389 military personnel – including six brigadier generals – and their family members had surrendered by Friday and had all been brought to safety.
Video clips purportedly showing the soldiers and their family members being transported in various vehicles circulated on social media. Shwe Phee Myay News Agency, an online news site that covers Shan State, reported that many of them were taken to Lashio, the capital of the northern Shan region, as part of a repatriation agreement with the MNDAA.
The alliance's overthrow of the city is the biggest in a series of defeats suffered by Myanmar's military government since the offensive began, underscoring the pressure it is under as it battles pro-democracy guerrillas and other ethnic minority armed groups across the country .
Ethnic armed organizations have been fighting for greater autonomy off and on for decades, but since the army took power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, Myanmar has been in what amounts to a civil war. forces of democracy.
It is not yet clear whether the Three Brothers Alliance will seek to expand its offensive beyond Shan State, but it has vowed to continue fighting against military rule.
The alliance viewed its offensive as a fight against military rule and an attempt to rid the region of large organized criminal enterprises, including cyber fraud operations, controlled by Chinese investors in collusion with local Myanmar warlords, particularly in Laukkaing. China has publicly sought to stamp out the large-scale criminal industry, and tens of thousands of people involved have been repatriated to China in recent weeks.
However, the offensive was also widely recognized as an attempt by the MNDAA to regain control of the Kokang Self-Administrative Zone by ousting a rival Kokang group backed by the military government from its seat of power.
Peng Deren, the commander of the MNDAA, said in a New Year's address published by The Kokang, an affiliated online media site, that the alliance has occupied over 250 military targets and five border crossings with China. He said more than 300 cyber fraud centers have been raided and more than 40,000 Chinese people involved in cybercrimes have been repatriated to their country.