Irrawaddy-Mar 27
Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Monday that he would take decisive action against the country’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) and its allied ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to thwart their growing attempts to topple his regime. In his speech to troops at the annual parade in celebration of Armed Forces Day in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw, the junta boss said the NUG was a political organization formed to engage in acts of terror. “Some EAOs that have been supporting the NUG and [its armed wing] the People’s Defense Forces [PDFs] are organizations trying to ruin the country,” he added. It was the first time Min Aung Hlaing has mentioned the NUG and the PDFs in his annual Armed Forces Day speech, and appears to be a recognition of the threat posed by the organizations, both of which have been branded as terrorist groups by the junta. His troops have come under heavy attack nationwide since the formation of the NUG and PDFs when people took up arms to fight the regime after the coup in 2021. On Monday, Min Aung Hlaing stressed that martial law had been extended in 40 townships—most of them in the country’s anti-regime strongholds—across the country in order to decisively crush the resistance.
He urged his troops to “effectively use the firearms provided” to root out the resistance led by the NUG and PDFs. Observers saw Min Aung Hlaing’s latest vow to decisively crush the resistance as an act of desperation and feared it would lead to an increase in bloodshed. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-chief-vows-to-defeat-shadow-govt-and-allied-eaos-for-supporting-resistance.html
