Myanmar junta asks to repatriate troops from Thailand after Myawaddy defeat

More than 600 junta soldiers have reportedly surrendered to Karen National Union (KNU) and allied forces who seized seven military bases in and around Myawaddy, which lies adjacent to the Thai border town of Mae Sot in Tak. The latest major defeat for the regime is expected to have significant repercussions for neighbouring Thailand, which was already bracing for an influx of Myanmar refugees after the junta activated military conscription in February.

Myawaddy in Karen (Kayin) State was the site of the junta’s largest military stronghold before Sunday night’s defeat.

The regime has also lost several towns to ethnic armies in Shan State on the border with China and in the westernmost Rakhine State bordering Bangladesh.

The junta imposed conscription after its military suffered heavy casualties, mass defections and surrenders of troops to a resistance offensive that has swept across the country since late October last year.

Myanmar's embassy in Thailand contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry on Sunday night to request permission to land an ATR 72-600 aircraft at Mae Sot airport for 72 hours to pick up “special passengers and cargo”. The passengers are thought to be military personnel and government officials who surrendered to the KNU and will be taken back to Yangon.

A Myanmar ATR 72-600 landed at Mae Sot on Sunday but took off again soon after, with reports that the KNU had detained Myanmar troops and their families at Shwe Kokko close to Myawaddy.

The Myawaddy-Mae Sot checkpoint is the largest among six border checkpoints between Thailand and Myanmar.

Annual trade through the Myawaddy checkpoint as of February dropped 40% from the previous year to US1.085 billion, according to Myanmar’s Commerce Ministry.

The Myawaddy-Mae Sot border point remained open as usual on Monday, according to local reports.

The KNU, which has been fighting for self-governance since Myanmar gained independence in 1948, fiercely opposed the military coup in February 2021. Since then, it has offered refuge for anti-military officials, provided defence training for civilians, and allied with the armed wing of the parallel National Unity Government, known as the People’s Defence Force, to attack junta troops.

The balance of power in Karen State shifted towards the opposition in February after the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) severed ties with the military government. In January, BGF chief Major General Saw Chit Thu – whose force commands the Karen border including the notorious criminal hub of Shwe Kokko – announced that he would no longer take orders from Naypyitaw.

There are no indications yet that his group, now renamed the Karen National Army, will join the resistance movement, but its severance of ties has significantly weakened the Myanmar military and its allies in Karen State.

The loss of Myawaddy, which will allow the KNU to control most of Karen State, represents another setback for the embattled military regime led by coup-maker Min Aung Hlaing.

China, the largest foreign investor in Myanmar with an oil-gas pipeline running across the country and a special economic zone and seaport being built in Rakhine, has reportedly upped diplomatic pressure on the regime with recent visits by envoys to Naypyitaw.

ASEAN’s peace plan for Myanmar, known as the Five-Point Consensus, has been largely ignored by the junta and has failed to prevent the country from sliding towards civil war marked by accusations of widespread junta atrocities against civilians.